


12 5 3 





































































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THE 


TREE-LIFTER. 


* 






London: 

Spottisw oodes and SHAW, 
N ew-street-Squ are. 













1 



KiEHmajidfiL & 'Waited LitK 


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TMiE TREE XdFTIBlR, 


Loivdon :PvtMish«el hyZongman 


&cf m3 












THE 


TREE-LIFTER; 


A NEW METHOD OF TRANSPLANTING 
FOREST TREES. 



COLONEL GEORGE fJREENWOOD. 



HE WHO HAS PLANTED A TREE HAS SET THE ELEMENTS TO WORK. 
FOR HIM. 


SECOND EDITION. 

39-S/ol 


LONDON: 

LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. 
1853. 





3y traoslor rroc_ 

Pot. Ofiioe Lift. 





CONTENTS. 


PART I. 

Page 

Practice of transplanting - - - 1 

PART II. 

Theory of transplanting, or, physiology of trees in refe¬ 
rence to transplanting - - - - 14 

Chapter I. The food of plants is imbibed by the sur¬ 
face of the roots - - - - - 14 

Chapter II. Course of the sap from the root to the 
leaf, and back to the root - - - - 44 

Chapter III. Upward growth of the head, and down¬ 
ward growth of the root - - - - 87 

Chapter TV. Miscellaneous - 127 


PART III. 

Are soils enriched, impoverished, or poisoned by 
vegetable growth? These questions include, ex¬ 
cretion of roots; sociability of plants; accumu¬ 
lation of soil in woods; general denudation of soil 
from wash of rain - - - - - 158 


PART IV. 

Pruning and thinning - - - - 210 

PART V. 


A 3 


The park pinetum 


- 261 



VI 


CONTENTS. 


PART I. 

Page 

Practical part of transplanting - - 1 


Advantages of the system - - - - 1 

Description of the tree-lifter - - - - 3 

Description of implements - - - - 6 

Description of water-cask - - - - 8 

Directions for practice - - - - 9 


PART II. 

Theory of transplanting, or, physiology of trees 
IN REFERENCE TO TRANSPLANTING - - - 14 

CHAPTER I. 

The food of plants is imbibed by the surface of 
THE ROOTS - - - - " - 14 

Proportion the head of a transplanted tree to the 
root - - - - - -14 

Prefatory remark to entering on the physiology of 
trees - - - - - - 14 

The course of this Treatise will go, with the sap, from 
the root, through the wood to the leaf, and back by 
the bark to the root - - - - 15 

Except the unripe ends of roots, trees imbibe from all 
parts exposed to moisture, and transpire from all 
parts exposed to drought - - - - 16 

The food of trees is imbibed by the surface of the roots 16 

Food of agastric animals imbibed by the surface - 16 

Seeds imbibe by the surface - - - - 17 

Cuttings imbibe by the surface - - - 18 

The coiled branch imbibes by the surface - - 19 

Radishes imbibe by the surface - - - 19 

The unripe ends of roots do not imbibe - - 20 

Formation of the ends of roots - - - 20 

Ends of roots consist only of bark, which is the descend¬ 
ing, not the ascending, conduit r - - 21 



CONTENTS. 


Vll 


Page 

Experiments in proof - - - 22 

Seedlings are not nourished by their roots till the 
roots become woody, but by the seed - - 22 

Symmetrical growth on root of horse-chestnut - 23 

Twin oaks - - - - - - 24 

That a radish is fed only by its end a fallacy - - 24 

Experiments in proof - - - - - 26 

That branches are the same length as roots a fallacy, 
and that the ends of branches drip on to the ends of 
roots a fallacy - - - - - 31 

Branches shorter than roots, and the drip is through 
them, not outside them •* - - - 31 

Form of the root a flat circle, like a wheel; form of 
the head a globular circle, like a ball - - 32 

The head robs the root of a little rain, but more than 
repays this by condensation - - - 33 

Rain and condensation are often shed inwards or towards 
the stem - - - - - - 36 

Argument from the Gardener’s Chronicle considered - 38 

The spade the destroyer of wall-fruit trees - - 39 

Unphilosophical remedies - - - - 40 

That roots absorb only by sponges or capillary stomata 
at their ends a scientific vulgar error - - 41 

Whether this is true or not of vital importance to trans¬ 
planting - - - - - - 42 

Ends of roots to a tree what children are to a common¬ 
wealth - - - - - - 43 

CHAPTER II. 


Course of the sap from the root to the leaf, and 
back to the root - - - - - 44 

Course of the upward sap through the whole of the 
wood - - - - - - 44 

The upward sap goes through the heart-wood; proof 
by experiment - - - - 45 

And through the sap-wood ; proof by example - 46 

By what mechanical power is the upward sap raised ? - 47 


Vlll 


CONTENTS. 


Page 

Where is the sap elaborated ? Whence the new growth 
in girthing deposited ? - - - 50 

Sap supposed to be elaborated in the leaf - - 51 

Growth in girthing supposed to be deposited from this 
elaborated sap in returning down the bark - - 51 

First office of the leaf, transpiration and excretion - 51 

Leaf supposed by some to absorb the food of plants - 53 

Second office of the leaf, the formation of winter-bud - 67 

Third office of the leaf, the changing of the sap from the 
upward conduit, the wood, to the downward conduit, 
the bark - - - - - - 68 

The growth in girthing is from the downward sap, or 
dependent on it; proof by experiment - - 68 

And supposed to be deposited from the bark — - 69 

But elaboration certainly takes place before the sap 
reaches the leaf - - - - - 71 

And also after it quits the leaf - - - 71 

Received theories of growth in girthing - - 72 

The pith or medulla, and medullary rays or silver grain 73 
Medullary rays longitudinal plates, only bounded in 
length by the height of trees and length of branches 
and roots - - - - - - 74 

The shake, and cup-shake - - - - 74 

Lateral as well as longitudinal flow of sap through the 
whole wood - - - - - 76 

The longitudinal pith-channels extend throughout the 
tree, from the pith of the original seedling to the 
finest ramifications of the roots and branches of the 
largest tree which is entirely alive - - - 77 

Diminution of the size of the pith and its disappearance 
vulgar errors - - - - - 78 

Whether the pith is the conduit of the upper sap or not 80 
Do the central piths of budded buds, of grafts, and of 
the shoots of coppice-wood, communicate with Du- 
trochet’s concentrical piths ? - - - 81 

Office of the pith unknown - - - - 85 

As the sap-channels are general, not peculiar, pruning 
increases the supply of the leader - - - 85 


CONTENTS. 


IX 


CHAPTER III. 

Page 

Upward growth of the head, and downward 
GROWTH OF THE ROOT - - - - 87 

Upward growth of the head, and downward growth of 
the root, considered together - - - 87 

The upward growth of a tree, or lengthening of its 
shoot, is by the enlargement of all the parts of that 
shoot; and all these parts progress bodily upward - 87 

The downward growth of the tree, or lengthening of 
the root, is simply by growth at the end of the root - 88 

By what agency is the head directed upward and the 
root downward ? - - - - 89 

Turgescence, and the action of light on turgescence, 
probably direct the growth of the head of the plant 90 
Cellular formation of the bark of green shoots - 90 

How turgescence acts on the cellular formation - 91 

How light acts on this cellular turgescence - - 91 

Dutrochet, Knight, Davy, &c. think that gravity directs 
the growth both of the head and roots of trees. Ex¬ 
periments in proof - - - - - 94 

Upward growth of first gemmule when deprived of 
light - - - - - -97 

Crane-neck growth of first gemmule of a double-seeded 
plant, to shield it while forced through the earth - 98 

Roots grow through the earth almost without force - 98 

Provision to enable the gemmule of a single-seeded 
plant to thrust itself through the earth - - 101 

Probable distinct organisation of the first gemmule - 101 
Strong downward determination of tap-root, and pro¬ 
bable distinct organisation of it - - - 104 

Tap-root only proper to seedlings, and a contrivance for 
fixing them - - - - - 107 

That the growth of the head and root of a tree is di¬ 
rected by gravity disputed - - - -112 

General growth of head towards light; general growth 
of root to wherever it can find good soil - - 118 

A new layer of bark is formed every year - - 120 


X 


CONTENTS. 


Page 

That roots have no pith an error - - - 123 

There is no true circulation of the sap, like that of the 
blood of animals - - - - - 125 


CHAPTER IV. 

Miscellaneous - - - - - 127 

Barked horse-chestnut at Esher - - - 127 

Best time for transplanting with the ball of earth - 133 
The growth in girthing descending from the head or 
any particular branch is general round the stem ; but 
it is greatest on the side proper to the branch - 138 
And the growth may be mechanically and continually 
turned from one side of the stem to the other - 138 

Lateral upward growth of the root - - - 139 

Origin of spurs and the swell of the roots - - 143 

A tap-rooted tree should have no spurs or swell of the 
root ------ 145 

Girthing of the stem dependent on the quantity of 
branches above it - - - - 146 

There is a constant circulation of sap even in winter - 148 • 
If so, coppice-wood should be cut as late in winter as 
possible - - - - - -149 

Best time for felling timber - - - - 152 

Roots should not be covered deeply - - - 152 

That a hill affords no more space for growth than its 
base would, an error - - - - 153 

Effect of wind on trees - 155 

Effect of sea breeze mechanical, not chemical - - 156 


PART III. 

Are soils enriched, impoverished, or poisoned by 

VEGETABLE GROWTH? THESE QUESTIONS INCLUDE, 
EXCRETION OF ROOTS; SOCIABILITY OF PLANTS; AC¬ 
CUMULATION OF SOIL IN WOODS ; GENERAL DENU¬ 
DATION OF SOIL FROM WASH OF RAIN - - 158 


CONTENTS. 


Xl 


Page 

The food of plants is extracted from the soil. But if 
the plants are returned to the soil, no impoverish¬ 
ment takes place - - - - - 158 

Roots do not excrete - - - - -161 

Sociability of plants a fancy - - - - 165 

Sociability of holly and beech owing to holly bearing 
shade better than other plants - - - 175 

The soil of woods does not become poorer, but richer - 179 
Is there any other cause for this besides protection by 
the roots from aqueous denudation ? - - 179 

Aqueous denudation is universal, and is not confined 
only to the lines of torrents and rivers - - 181 

No necessity for rotation in Nature’s cropping - 207 


PART IV. 


Pruning and thinning - - - - 210 

For beauty we should have every variety of growth - 210 
Trees cannot attain their maximum height by nature, 

— that is, without pruning and thinning - - 210 

The works of God can be improved by man - - 211 

To grow valuable timber, maximum head on maximum 
height of branchless stem - - - - 212 

Rules for pruning for height - - - - 212 

Plantations are, and should be , planted too thick to grow, 
and should be thinned every year - - - 214 

No turnips without hoeing; no trees without thinning - 215 
Never too late to thin - - - - 215 

Cut the worst plants worst placed ; leave the best 
plants best placed - - - - -215 

Pruning does not increase the aggregate quantity of 
wood made by a tree, but, by improving its location , 
increases the measurable timber - - - 217 

Example ------ 218 

That a branchless stem is a natural attribute of a tree 
is a mistake of De Candolle’s - - - 221 


Xll 


CONTENTS. 


i 

Page 

A living branch forms a cross-grain; when it dies, an 
united knot; what is afterwards inclosed, a disunited, 
movable knot - - - - -224 

Healing over an amputated branch - 230 

Prejudice against pruning with the saw, a vulgar error 233 
Explanation of Plates I. and II. 234 

The pruner’s pulley ----- 242 
Best time for pruning ----- 245 
Measurement and longevity of trees - - - 246 

PART V. 

The park pinetum - - - - - 261 

Concluding Remarks - 267 


ERRATUM. 

In page 78. line 1. and in page 79. line 12. for “ 232 ” read “ 234.” 


THE 


TREE-LIFTER, 


FART I. 

PRACTICAL PART OF TRANSPLANTING. 


ADVANTAGES OF THE SYSTEM. 

Among the advantages of transplanting with the 
“Tree-lifter” may be reckoned its cheapness. 
Its simplicity is such that the whole may be 
performed, and even single-handed, by a common 
day labourer. One man may plant one tree per 
day, of from twenty-five to thirty feet in height. 
To transplant trees without the ball of earth 
requires great skill, care, labour, and expense in 
tracing out the small fibres of the roots, whose 
extreme points, with their supposed spongioles, 
could by no delicacy of operation be retained, 
and which after all are nearly valueless. All 
transplanted trees are the better for being 
watered; but with the ball of earth this is by 

B 




2 


PRACTICAL PART 


no means necessary. To transplant without the 
ball of earth, and not to water, for at least two 
summers, is hopeless. This is a great expense, 
besides staking, and tying, which plants with 
the ball of earth do not need. The growth of 
trees transplanted with “ the tree-lifter ” is not 
checked; but without a ball of earth, trees 
transplanted, with whatever care, or at whatever 
expense, are checked in their growth for eight 
or ten years, and if they do not die, they become 
living scarecrows. 

In fact, trees transplanted by the tree-lifter 
are very much in the same situation as those 
prepared for transplanting, as it is called, in the 
old-fashioned way, by cutting a trench round 
them. This method was originated in the time 
of Charles the Second, by Lord Fitz-Harding, 
as Evelyn tells us. But the trees transplanted 
by the tree-lifter gain the great advantage of 
making their new roots in the ground where 
they are to remain for ever, and escape the in¬ 
juries of a subsequent removal. 

The best months for transplanting the gene¬ 
rality of English trees, with the ball of earth, 
are July, August, and September. 

Over the nursery plant, as a single tree, the 
transplanted tree has the advantage of a start of 


OF TRANSPLANTING. 


3 


from twenty-five to thirty years, besides saving 
the expense of the material, and carpenter’s 
work, for at least two fences for each tree. 

The system recommended would have pecu¬ 
liar advantages for planting or for keeping up 
avenues. 


DESCRIPTION OF THE TREE-LIFTER. 

A pair of wheels eight feet in diameter, stand¬ 
ing four feet six inches apart, or the same width 
apart as the common carts and waggons of the 
country. Twenty spokes. Width of the tire, two 
inches one-eighth. The wheels quite straight, 
and undished . An iron axle of three inches 
diameter throughout, and perfectly straight. 
An iron wheel, fixed with a linch-pin, on each 
end of the axle, outside the box of each wooden 
wheel. The iron wheels to have six spokes, 
ending in wooden handles projecting one foot 
beyond the rims. One wooden handle fixed on 
the rims between each spoke. The ends of 
these twelve handles to be just within the rims 
of the wooden wheels. The entire machine thus 
forming simply a windlass on wheels. A strong 
iron ring playing loose on the axle, and a strong 

B 2 


4 


PRACTICAL PART 


iron hook playing loose on this ring, to hold the 
weight when raised. 

Shafts ten feet four inches from the axle; to 
take on and off the axle by means of a hook and 
screw. Five chains, twelve feet six inches in 
length, with a hook at each end; one chain, 
fourteen feet six inches in length, with a hook 
at each end, and with six round links at each 
end, to distinguish it from the other chains. A 
box with six compartments to hold the chains. 
Two strong planks, eight feet in length, with a 
hole bored in each, to fit on to a pin on the 
shafts, along which, and across the axle, the 
planks are to rest when carried on the machine. 
A box or thill on the shafts to carry four blocks 
for the wheels, spades, pickaxes, &c. A South 
American surcingle, and three or four 
rope traces with a hook at each end. A 
strong rope to be attached by one end 
to the axle. At the other end a strong 
iron ring to receive the chains which 
encircle the ball of earth, and to be 
attached to the hook and ring on the axle, when 
the weight is raised. 

Possibly the dimensions here given might be 
increased with advantage. 

“ The draught axle ” or timber wheels should, 





OF TRANSPLANTING. 


5 


like this machine, have straight arms to the 
axle. If the arms are bent, the lower parts of 
the wheels stand nearer together than the upper 
parts. But when the shafts are raised to take 
up the load, the lower parts of the wheels are 
wrenched from one another; and when the 
shafts are hauled down to raise the load, the 
lower parts of the wheels are again wrenched 
together. This, with heavy loads and rough 
deep ground, requires force which no machinery 
will stand long. 

The only argument which I know in favour 
of bent arms to axles is one which I never heard 
mentioned or saw stated: it prevents wabbling . 
It indeed creates friction between the boxes and 
the ends of the axles, since the wheel inclines to 
run up the arm which is bent down. But this 
is not so bad as the friction and wear and tear 
caused by wabbling. With straight arms, wabbling 
can only be prevented by having the arms and 
boxes very long. This increases the friction; 
perhaps as much as results from forcing a conical 
wheel to run straight instead of circling out¬ 
ward from the carriage. 


B 3 


6 


PRACTICAL PART 


DESCRIPTION OF THE PRUNING SAW, AND PRUNING 
LADDER. 

The best instrument to prune small trees 
with is a carpenter’s turning saw , with coarse 
teeth, set wide for the purpose; having a large 
handle, with a hook to attach it to boughs or 
the rounds of a ladder, and admitting of the 
blade being taken in and out by screws, and 
replaced when broken. The saw is held by the 
round part of the handle while sawing a branch 
from below upward; and all branches should, if 
possible, be begun from below, to avoid tearing 
the bark and last layers of wood as the branch 
falls. A chopping instrument, such as a bill¬ 
hook, besides bruising the bark and splitting the 
wood, is apt to cut too close, or not close enough, 
or both; that is, to begin by cutting too close, 
and to finish by not cutting close enough. Or 
if it finishes close to the stem, great risk is run 
of injury to the bark or branches above that 
amputated. In the case of cutting too close, the 
parts from which the new healing growth is to 
proceed are injured ; in the case of not cutting 
close enough, a dead stump is left to be enclosed 


OF TRANSPLANTING. 


I 


by the annually increasing stem, which is pro¬ 
bably rotten before it is enclosed. Besides, a 
chopping instrument is not adapted to getting 
between branches to thin them out. These saws 
will pass between branches which are too close 
better even than the knife. One of these blades 
fixed on a light rod is the best instrument to 
clear leaders which cannot be reached with a 
knife or a hand-saw. In this case, work the 
saw in a line with the stem of the tree; not 
across it. These saws may be bought at Cole¬ 
man’s, cutler, Haymarket. 

The pruning ladder should be triangular; 
that is, to the Kentish fruit-ladder, wide at the 
base and narrow at the top, should be added a 
single prop. The lower end of the prop should 
diverge into two branches, to receive a wheel 
like that of a wheel-barrow. When lowered, the 
ladder is placed and wheeled on this prop. 
When reared, the prop being attached to the 
ladder by a rope, it is pulled towards you by 
raising the ladder by one of its lower rounds. 
If well made this ladder is perfectly wieldable, 
and safe at the height of upwards of twenty 
feet. ) 

The ladder is easily detached from the prop, 
and used singly, if required. It is the only safe 

B 4 


8 


PRACTICAL' PART 


ladder against a tree. A common ladder must 
have four bearings; and if either of these should 
give way, the ladder will turn over. A wide- 
based ladder needs only three bearings; that is, 
it is as safe from turning over with one bearing 
above as with two. 

DESCRIPTION OF WATER-CASK. 

I have found the following sort of water-cask 
very useful; either for common watering, or for 
the conveyance of liquid manures : 

A pair of old gig wheels, four feet in diameter. 
A thirty-six gallon cask, thirty-two inches high. 
Swing this cask between the wheels by two iron 
arms, fifteen inches of the cask above the arms, 
seventeen inches below them. Or the arms 
which pass through the boxes of the wheels 
may be attached to an iron circle large enough 
to receive the cask, which will rest on the circle 
by three supports. 

An iron handle to pass over the top of the 
cask, and sufficiently free from the cask to allow 
of its being tilted. The handle to take on and 
off the axle with a hook and screw. 

A pair of old gig shafts to take on and off the 
handle. 


OF TRANSPLANTING. 


9 


A leathern hose, with wire inside, at the lower 
part of the cask, just long enough, when turned 
over the cask, to reach the bottom of it on the 
other side. The hose to take on and off with a 
screw. A lid, opening with folding flaps, fas¬ 
tened by a bent hasp, which will pass over and 
secure the hose while in movement. A couple 
of leathern buckets. A hook before and behind 
the cask, to carry the buckets. 

A wrought-iron bowl, to lade with. 

This cask may be used either by hand, or 
with a horse, or donkey. It may be locked 
going down hill, as recommended for the “ tree- 
lifter.” 

According to circumstances, or the power of 
approaching the tree, the hose or the buckets 
may be used, or the cask may be tilted. 

DIRECTIONS FOR PRACTICE. 

Choose a tree of from twenty to thirty feet in 
height, with several leaders, or with some unduly 
large branches. Prune the tree previously to 
digging round it, so as to take from the head at 
least as much as will, in all probability, be 
taken from the root, not by cutting in the head 
and branches of the tree, but by giving it a clear 


10 


PRACTICAL PART 


leader, and cutting out all branches large enough 
to compete with the stem, low enough to be 
reached by cattle, or the growth of which is up¬ 
right or parallel to the stem. Cut all close to 
the stem. Dig a trench round the tree, at the 
distance of about twenty inches from it. Under¬ 
mine the ball of earth, at the depth of about 
three feet, so that every root may be cut pre¬ 
vious to lifting it. Tie some old carpeting or 
matting round the stem of the tree. Place the 
machine, without the shafts, on the planks, and 
block the wheels ; the centre of the axle over 
the centre of the ball of earth, and the ring of 
the windlass rope at the foot of the tree. Place 
the chain with the round links horizontally, and 
loosely, round the lower part of the ball of earth, 
so that it lies on the ground in the pit. Cross 
the end held in the left hand twice over 
the end held in the right hand, and lay both 
ends down. Pass one of the other chains, as far 
as its middle, through the ring of the windlass 
rope. Pass the ends of this chain beneath the 
horizontal chain, and hook the ends back on the 
chain itself. Do the same with the four re¬ 
maining chains. So that wheji the windlass is 
worked, these live vertical chains, being at equal 
distances from each other, shall bear an equal 


OF TRANSPLANTING. 


11 


distress from the weight of the ball. Fasten the 
horizontal chain, by hooking it to any conve¬ 
nient part of the vertical chains. Raise the ball 
of earth with the windlass, and place the ring of 
the windlass rope on the hook attached to the 
axle. The ball of earth carried thus is pressed 
togther by the chains acting towards one ano¬ 
ther, and the greater the weight the greater the 
inward pressure. A ball of earth resting on a 
sledge or truck soon shakes to pieces on the least 
movement, besides the difficulty and mischief 
done in lifting it on and off the truck. 

The tree is lowered into the pit prepared for 
it with the same facility as it is raised. If it 
does not stand upright it is easily raised by the 
windlass, while earth is cast under where it is 
wanted. The unchaining is only reversing the 
enchaining. If during the carriage, owing to 
wet or the friability of the earth, the chains cut 
into the ball, and the load sinks, it is easy, by 
letting the load down altogether, to take up 
and tighten any one or every one of the chains. 

Place the upper surface of the ball of earth at 
precisely its former level, and do not cover it; 
but raise a very slight ridge of earth round the 
outside of its circumference, so as to form a pan 
or irrigation cup . Tie some bushes round the 


12 


PRACTICAL PART 


stem to prevent cattle from rubbing it. The 
organisation of the bark is easily mechanically 
injured and destroyed by any bruise, or by 
cattle rubbing against it. It is the common 
error to believe that the bark is chemically poi¬ 
soned by the oil from the skin of cattle. 

It may be found necessary to stay the sway of 
the tree, while in movement, by ropes from the 
stem to the shafts. 

In going down steep hills the machine may be 
held back by a horse ridden behind, and hooked 
on by the South American surcingle and single 
trace; or the machine may be very conveniently 
blocked by lashing a bar of wood across the 
shafts, close in front of the wheels, and taking 
out the screw which fastens the shafts to the 
axle. The horse will then bear back against the 
wheels instead of against the axle, and the fric¬ 
tion against the wheels will increase or decrease 
directly as the downward impetus. 

This application of a common mode of block¬ 
ing wheels has the advantage of being entirely 
self-acting. It needs neither the attention nor 
personal service of the driver; nor is it left to 
his judgment at what time, or how much, or 
how little, to put on or to take off. Without 
any stoppage or trouble, friction is acquired at 


OF TRANSPLANTING. 


13 


the exact time and in the exact quantity that is 
required, and ceases of itself as the necessity for 
it ceases. 

The principle of locking two-wheeled car¬ 
riages by creating friction on the wheels induces 
a slight downward pressure on the horse’s back. 
But the long shafts act as a lever in the horse’s 
favour, and the extra pressure on his back is 
not to be spoken of in comparison with the 
labour of bearing back a loaded cart. 

That this is a fact any one may convince 
himself practically, by taking the water-cart 
which I have described down a hill which is so 
steep that he could not hold the cart back 
without this mode of blocking the wheels. 
Might not this mode of blocking be applied to 
two-wheeled carts ? 


14 


THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED [Part II. 


Proportion the 
head of a trans¬ 
planted tree to 
the root. 


Prefatory re¬ 
mark to enter¬ 
ing on physio¬ 
logy of trees. 


PART II. 

THEORY OF TRANSPLANTING, OR, PHYSIOLOGY OF 
TREES IN REFERENCE TO TRANSPLANTING. 


CHAPTER I. 

THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED BY THE 
SURFACE OF THE ROOTS. 

The supply must be equal to the demand; if 
not, scarcity will ensue. He who expects that 
a diminished root will support an undiminished 
head will be disappointed. This is the funda¬ 
mental principle of transplanting. And in trans¬ 
planting, the head must be curtailed exactly in 
proportion as you have to curtail the root. 

Before entering on physiology, I would say 
one word to defend myself from the charge of 
egotism and plagiarism. When I mention Sir 
Humphrey Davy, I may say that immortal 
names are among those who have written on the 
physiology of trees. Yet so much doubt and 
difference prevail among the authors on the 



Chap. I.] BY THE SURFACE OF THE ROOTS. 


15 


subject, that one cannot adopt a single opinion 
without opposing many, held by minds, perhaps, 
as clear and comprehensive as Sir Humphrey’s. 
It is, then, to save the reader’s time if I lay 
down as certain what better men have doubted 
or controverted; or if I use the words, “ I think 
this,” or “ I think that,” in stating other people’s 
opinions. 

The sap is absorbed by the roots.* Its course 
upward is through the whole of the wood, heart- 
wood as well as sap-wood, of the root, the stem, 
and the branches. It thence passes through the 
insides of the leaves and buds, and returns 
through their outsides into the bark, and 
descends again to the roots. From the ascend¬ 
ing sap the growth in elongation of the stem 
and branches takes place, and from the descend¬ 
ing sap the growth in girthing of them, and also 
the growth in elongation of the roots. 

But I imagine that, besides this vertical or 
longitudinal flow of the sap between the roots 
and the branches, there is also a horizontal or 

* Even this first principle is quite contrary to the opi¬ 
nions of the mass of physiologists, ancient and modern. 
Priestley, Senebier, De Saussure, Liebig, &c., think the 
more head, the more root it will feed. I think the more 
root, the more head it will feed. 


The course of 
the Treatise will 
go, with the sap, 
from the root, 
through the 
wood to the 
leaf, and back 
by the bark to 
the root. 


16 


THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED [Part II. 


With one ex¬ 
ception, trees 
imbibe from all 
parts exposed to 
moisture, and 
transpire from 
all parts ex¬ 
posed to 
drought. 


The food of 
trees imbibed 
by the surface 
of roots. 


Food of agastric 
animals imbibed 
by the surface. 


transverse circulation between the heart-wood 
and bark; and that the joint elaboration of 
these two saps is essential to the formation of 
the new annual growth in girthing. This con¬ 
sists of a new sheath of wood, deposited outside 
the last year’s growth of wood, over the entire 
surface of the stem, branches, and roots; and also 
of a new sheath of bark inside the last year’s 
bark. These opinions, in this order, will be dis¬ 
cussed in the following pages. 

With the exception stated below, trees imbibe 
from every part of them which is exposed to 
moisture, and give off (transpire) from every 
part of them which is exposed to drought. The 
root is the part which is constantly exposed to 
moisture, and which furnishes the constant sup¬ 
ply of sap to the tree. That part of the root 
which is universally believed to imbibe no mois¬ 
ture, the woody part, is the only part which 
does imbibe moisture ; and that part of the root 
which is universally believed to be the only part 
which does imbibe moisture, the unripe ends or 
fibres, is the only part which does not imbibe 
moisture. 

In fact, the mode in which food is first received 
into plants is the same as that in which it is 
received by what are called the agastric animals, 


Chap. I.] BY THE SURFACE OF THE ROOTS. 


17 


or animals without stomachs, as some Medusas, 
that is, by absorption from the surface. 

Let us first take the positive assertion that 
roots imbibe from any parts exposed to moisture, 
and afterwards consider the negative, that they 
do not imbibe by the immature ends of the 
roots. 

Let us begin with the seed. The existence, 
and also the growth, of all seeds depend on the 
principle of absorption from the surface; that 
is, all seeds both breathe and drink by absorption 
from the surface. If seeds are to exist, they 
must be supplied with atmospheric air. If they 
are to grow, they must be supplied with mois¬ 
ture. And they inhale the air for their exist¬ 
ence, and imbibe the moisture for their growth, 
by absorption from the surface. 

We may regard the growth of “ mummy- 
wheat ” as an idle tale. Lyell informs us that, 
in an experiment at Kew Gardens, “ out of 100 
seeds of wheat, barley, and lentils, from Mr. 
Sam’s collection in the British Museum, not one 
of them would germinate;” and that a friend 
of his found occasional grains of maize (first im¬ 
ported from America) in several parcels of corn 
sold by the Arabs as coming from the catacombs. 
Lyell does not, however, controvert the possi- 
c 


Seeds imbibe 
by the surface. 


18 


TIIE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED [Part II. 


Cuttings imbibe 
by the surface. 


bility of the growth of seeds after an entombment 
of 3000 years. And supposing the presence of 
atmospheric air, and the absence of moisture, 
sufficient to cause generation, we know no reason 
why they should not grow. But we do know 
that if seeds are deprived of atmospheric air, by 
being hermetically sealed, even for a few months, 
they die. 

Again, the existence and growth of cuttings 
which have no root, old or young, prove absorp¬ 
tion from the surface. 

In the hot climate and on the arid hill-sides 
of Spain the olive is propagated by cuttings. 
These cuttings are old branches seven feet in 
length. One end of such a cutting is buried 
about eighteen inches in a pit, and concrete 
earth or clay is raised, like a pillar, round it, so 
that, at the upper end, only about eight or ten 
inches of the cutting is exposed to the atmo¬ 
sphere. Thus excretion of moisture is prevented, 
and secretion of moisture takes place, throughout 
about six feet of the cutting. In the course of 
two or three years the pillar of earth is gradually 
taken away; when a head has grown on a trunk 
five or six feet from the ground. 

From Pliny’s description of the planting the 
elm in vineyards, and Seneca the Younger’s 


Chap. I.] BY THE SURFACE OF THE ROOTS. 


19 


description of planting the olive, I imagine the 
Spanish to be a lineal descendant of the Roman 
method. Virgil also alludes to this mode of cul¬ 
tivating the olive in the Second Book of the 
Georgies: — 

“ Quin et caudicibus sectis (mirabile dictu!) 

Truditur e sicco radix oleagina ligno.” 

I have known cuttings of pinuses kept out of 
doors without heat, to live for two years, and 
even to make small shoots, without forming a 
symptom of a root. That these were fed for two 
years by the absorption of their wood from the 
earth, and not, as Priestley and Liebig would have 
it, by the absorption of their foliage from the air, 
is clear, — because, if cuttings are left without 
being placed in the earth, they die at once. 

If a long vine-branch is coiled round the inside 
of a flower-pot and covered with earth, as it is 
ten times as long below the earth as a common 
cutting, it will shoot with ten times as much 
vigour; and if heat is given, it will bear fruit the 
first year. It will also appear, from experiments 
which I shall detail, that if every root is cut or 
rubbed off a radish, it will grow, either in water 
or in earth. Nay, if the bulb is cut in two, and 
the upper half planted, this rootless half-bxi\b 
will grow. 


The coiled 
branch imbibes 
from the sur¬ 
face. 


Radishes im¬ 
bibe by the sur¬ 
face. 


20 


THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED [Part II. 


The unripe 
ends of roots 
not imbibe. 


Formation of 
ends of roots. 


In the first growth of the seed, in the growth 
of cuttings and of coiled branches, and in the 
growth of the half-radishes, there must be ab¬ 
sorption from the surface without the aid of the 
small fibres or ends of roots, since no roots of 
any sort exist in any of these cases. 

Let us now consider the negative assertion, 
that plants do not imbibe by the unripe ends of 
their roots. 

Take the end of a freely-growing root; break 
or nip the silver end across. An internal tube 
will be found, distinct from the external tube. 
The difference in the organisation of the internal 
tube from that of the outer one will be plainly 
seen by the naked eye, and very frequently a 
circle of cells or tubes round the outside of the 
inner main tube. These two main tubes are 
what an Englishman would like to call the outer 
and inner bark: but he must not think of doing 
so ; he must call the outer tube the cuticle or 
epidermis, and the inner tube the parenchyma¬ 
tous under-layer or herbaceous envelope. Or, at 
least, they are equivalents to what would bear 
these euphonious titles above ground. Continue 
to break off small pieces of the root. A third tube 
will be found, — a ligneous thread, ending in the 
finest point, and growing gradually thicker. The 


Chap. I.] BY THE SURFACE OF THE ROOTS. 


21 


thread being comparatively tough, the outer 
coatings may be pulled off it for many inches. 
The internal thread is the wood, and is the con¬ 
duit for the ascending sap which approaches 
nearest to the extremity of the root. The ex¬ 
ternal coatings are the bark, and the inner bark 
is the conduit for the descending sap, and the 
means of the growth of the root, as well in elon¬ 
gation as in diameter. 

The silver ends of roots are, in fact, a mere 
prolongation of the bark, without wood. Down 
the bark all physiologists allow a descending 
current, but none allow an ascending current. I 
believe, indeed, that there is a power of absorp¬ 
tion and of lateral transmission of moisture across 
the bark into the wood, and that the layers of 
wood are the upward conduits for the sap. But if 
we suppose the possibility of the absorption of 
moisture by the immature and silver ends, we 
cannot suppose the possibility of its transmission 
upwards, where there is no wood, but only unripe 
bark in process of formation and deposition from 
above, which bark, even when ripe, is the de¬ 
scending, not the ascending, conduit: and though 
on extraordinary emergencies the sap may for a 
short distance flow up the downward conduits 
of the bark, it is rather too much to suppose that, 


Ends of roots 
only bark,which 
is the descend¬ 
ing, not the 
ascending, con¬ 
duit. 


22 


THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED [Part II. 


Experiments 
in proof. 


Seedlings not 
nourished by 
roots till they 
become woody, 
but by the seed. 


in the ordinary course of nature, the sap should 
perpetually flow both ways at once in the same 
channel . 

As this question is of vital importance in trans¬ 
planting, I will state the results of several expe¬ 
riments in support of these opinions. To begin 
again with the seedling. In March, 1836,1 made 
some horse-chestnut seeds grow in water, in my 
barrack-room, and found that when the root was 
cut off when it was several inches long, the plant 
would still grow, and would continue to throw 
out fresh roots as fast as they were cut off. The 
existence of the plant was evidently independent 
of the root. The reason is, that unripe, that is 
unwoody, roots are incapable either of absorbing 
or of transmitting sap; but receive their own 
nourishment from above,—in this case, from the 
seed. Consequently, whenever I divided a plant 
from its seed, it died, though the root was 
perhaps twice the length of the plant, and 
though leaves were developed on the plant. Yet, 
when I allowed the seeds to remain attached to 
the plants till the roots had become woody, the 
plants grew in water for years. Moisture is taken 
up by absorption from the surface of the seed; 
the elaboration of the sap is entirely in the seed, 
and passes through the bands which unite it to 
the seedling, for the growth of the plant upward 


Chap. I.] BY THE SURFACE OF THE ROOTS. 


23 


and of the root downward; and the seedling is 
entirely dependent on the seed for its life and for 
its growth till the roots have become woody. 

Still farther to prove this, I have placed horse- 
chestnut seedlings raised in water, having roots 
about three inches long, with the tips and lower 
parts of the roots in a shallow saucer of water, and 
with the seeds and plants outside the saucer. All 
died and dried instantly. These, then, while alive, 
were supplied by absorption from the surface of 
the seed, and were not indebted to the immature 
roots, with their spongioles and capillary stomata. 

And where are the spongioles and capillary sto¬ 
mata which supply the surface of the seed ? 

One of these experimental plants lived for Symmetrica! 

growth on root 

nearly ten years in water, and was then only of horse-chest-' 
killed accidentally. The first side-fibres or 
shoots which are developed on the roots of 
horse-chestnuts grown in water are regularly 
arranged in six vertical lines along the root. 

This is the only approach to symmetrical 
growth that I have ever remarked on the root of 
a tree. The side-fibres of the root come from 
the woody part of the main root, as branches do 
from the woody part of the stem ; and I imagine 
that, when side-fibres are first developed on the 
main root, this main root is first becoming suffi- 


24 


THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED [Part II. 


Twin oaks. 


That a radish 
is fed only by 
its end a fallacy. 


ciently woody to absorb, and to feed itself and 
the plant, independently of the seed. 

The two bands which unite the seedling to the 
seed pass one to each division (cotyledon) of the 
seed. I have known four divisions or cotyledons 
in an acorn. In this case twin plants arose. 

I know not how to question the roots of mature 
trees in reference to the absorption of their food 
by the ends; though I think that the free 
growth of trees transplanted with the ball of 
earth answers it in the negative. So does the 
growth of potted greenhouse plants, all the ends 
of whose roots are cut off. But certainly the 
answers elicited from the roots of seedlings are 
most clear and most decisive, and directly in con¬ 
tradiction to the only fact I have ever heard 
stated in favour of the absorption by the ends of 
roots. And this fact, I have no hesitation in 
asserting, is not a fact. I give, in Richard’s 
words, what I believe Senebier first asserted: — 

“ Roots also extract from the earth the sub¬ 
stances which are intended to serve for the 
growth of the plant. But all parts of the root 
do not perform this office, it being only by the 
extremity of their smallest fibres that this ab¬ 
sorption takes place. Some say that they are 
terminated by little ampullse, or spongy bodies, 


Chap. I.] BY THE SURFACE OF THE ROOTS* 


25 


which are more or less tumid ; and others, by a 
kind of absorbing mouths. Whatever be their 
structure, it is certain that the office of absorp¬ 
tion is performed by these extremities alone. 

“No experiment is more easily made than 
that by means of which the truth of this fact is 
undeniably established. If we take a radish or 
a turnip, and immerse in water the extremity of 
the radicle by which it is terminated, it will ve¬ 
getate and shoot forth leaves. On the contrary, 
if it be so placed in the water that its lower ex¬ 
tremity is not immersed, it gives no sign of de¬ 
velopment/’ 

First, I think I may fairly ask why “ some ” 
say that each root ends in a sponge ? and why 
other some say, in a capillary stoma? In either 
case, have they seen the fact? Have some seen 
one of these bodies at the end of a root ? and the 
other some, the other of these bodies there ? Or 
are these two bodies so precisely alike that one 
cannot be distinguished from the other ? To my 
eye, there is not much resemblance between a 
sponge and a capillary stoma; and any one who 
agrees with me here will, 1 think, also agree that 
in no science except botany would this extraordi¬ 
narily loose mode of stating facts be tolerated. 
These, however, are not the facts which 1 have 


26 


THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED [Part II. 


Experiments in 
proof. 


at present to deal with ; but with the great fact 
asserted by all physiologists, which I have given 
in Richard’s words,—that a radish with its end 
only in water will live and grow, with all but its 
end in water, will die. 

In physiology, as in many other things, we 
are apt to find — 

“ That witnesses like watches go, 

Just as they’re set, too fast or slow 

and certainly my testimony directly contradicts 
this double assertion. I assert, that if the end 
only of the main root of a radish newly taken 
up from the ground, is placed in water, in a room, 
but out of the sun, even to the length of an inch, 
the radish and its leaves will instantly die; pre¬ 
cisely the same, that is just as quickly, as if no 
part of the plant were in water. On the other 
hand, if all the radish is placed in water except 
its leaves and the end of its main root, it will re¬ 
main alive and continue to grow, even after the 
last inch of its main root is dead and dry. But 
the leaves will sometimes droop at first, unless 
they also have access to the water by their foot¬ 
stalks. Radishes have many side-roots (a new 
fact, perhaps, to most physiological writers ): and 
1 have found these results to be the same, whether 


Chap. I.] BY THE SURFACE OF THE ROOTS. 


27 


the side-roots are taken off or left on, and whether 
the end of the main root is left in the water or 
out of it; or whether the end of the main root 
is cut off or left on the plant, or if the lower half 
of the radish is cut off, or if it is cut off within 
half an inch of the neck. When radishes have 
once been well saturated with water, they will 
remain alive for a long time under any circum¬ 
stances. 

If a radish is placed in a narrow-necked bottle, 
such as an eau de Cologne bottle, the absorption 
of water is very apparent by the decrease of water 
in the neck of the bottle. If the bottle is kept 
filled, so as to give all the radish the power of 
absorbing laterally, the radish will live. If the 
bottle is not kept filled, the radish will fade as 
the level of the water sinks to the immature parts 
of the radish. 

On the 13th of April, 1850, I instituted three 
experiments similar to these; but in earth in¬ 
stead of water. The results were equally favour¬ 
able to the position that the absorption of nutri¬ 
ment by roots is through the medium of their 
mature parts, and not through the medium of 
their immature ends. 

No. 1. From a ridge-bed, covered with matting 
at night, in which early potatoes and radishes 


28 


THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED [Part II. 


were growing, I took half a dozen radishes, 
rubbed off all the side-roots, and laid them side¬ 
ways in the earth, in a flower-pot, with their 
heads out of the earth, and their immature white 
end-roots in the air, over the side of the flower¬ 
pot. All grew. 

No. 2. Of another half-dozen, I cut the red 
bulbs across the middle, rubbed the side-rootlets 
off the upper halves, and planted them in a 
flower-pot. All grew. 

No. 3. I tied half a dozen others to sticks, so 
that their heads and red bulbs were in the air, 
and their immature white roots buried about 
two inches in the earth. All died. 

It is true that each experiment, for the first 
week, flagged with every warm gleam, — 

“ Purpureus veluti cum flos succisus aratro 
Languescit moriens; ” 

and this flagging took place in celerity and in¬ 
tensity inversely as I have numbered the expe¬ 
riments. But they revived with every shower, 
and this in celerity and perfection directly as 
their numbers. Some plants even of No. 3. re¬ 
covered their drooping partially after showers 
for the first few days. But this, I think, only 
goes to prove the position with which I started 
in the first edition of this treatise, that vegetables 


Chap. I.] BY THE SURFACE OF THE ROOTS. 


29 


imbibe from all mature parts which are exposed 
to moisture, and excrete from all parts which are 
exposed to drought. 

The radishes had been grown in very light 
mould, so that, by passing the fingers into it in 
taking the radishes up, I believe not a rootlet, 
main or lateral, was broken. The whole of the 
roots were left on No. 3., and much earth ad¬ 
hering to the side-roots of some. The weather 
was very favourable for the first week, the wind 
south or south-west, the thermometer about tem¬ 
perate, with constant heavy showers. • For this 
reason, none of the experiments were watered for 
the first fortnight. On the 21st the wind got to 
the north, and the weather was sunny and dry. 
But, ere this, nearly all No. 3. were defunct. 
On the 29th, after a week’s drought, some of the 
leaves of Nos. 1. and 2. looking flagging, the ex¬ 
periments were all watered. Care was taken that 
the water should fall only on the earth, without 
touching a leaf, in order to make certain that the 
revival (which took place) was caused solely by 
the absorption of moisture by the rootless bulbs, 
— nay, in the case of No. 2., by the rootless 
HALF-bulbs. 

On the 28th of May, when the experiments 
were between six and seven weeks old, I turned 


30 


THE FOOT) OF TREES IS IMBIBED [Part II. 


No. 1. and No. 2. into the open ground. On 
taking off the pots, I found the roots in both 
cases matted round the balls of earth, and they 
had grown through the holes of the flower-pots. 
Can it be supposed that these long roots are use¬ 
ful to their plants only by their ends ? Can it 
be supposed that the grand systems of roots of 
forest-trees are useful as absorbents only at their 
ends ? If so, would these magnificent conduits 
of the upward sap, or could they, enlarge directly 
as their distance from their petty supply? I 
think the reverse of all this is the case: that 
the root absorbs laterally from the whole of its 
mature length. 

No. 4. On the 7th of June, 1850, I took half 
a dozen radishes grown in an open bed, which 
the gardeners were pulling up because too large 
and too old for use; I cut off* the lower halves 
of the bulbs, rubbed off* the side-rootlets, and 
transplanted the upper half-bulbs to an open bed 
under a south wall, taking the precaution to 
diminish their heads by cutting off* nearly all 
their large leaves. The stalk of one had grown 
up about three inches. For the three succeeding 
days the thermometer on the wall rose above 90°, 
on the fourth day above 100°. The plants were 
watered each day, but not sheltered from the 


Chap. I.] BY THE SURFACE OF THE ROOTS. 


31 


sun. All grew. By midsummer, and after that, 
the thermometer frequently stood at 84° in the 
shade, and 111 0 in the sun, on the wall under 
which Nos. 1, 2., and 4. were growing. Not a 
leaf of either flagged. There were by this time 
flowers on the tops of the stalks in all three ex¬ 
periments : and in the autumn all bore seed most 
profusely, much of which ripened. 

First comes the unsound datum, then follows 
the unsound theory. Koget remarks, in reference 
to roots, that “ as a constant relation is preserved 
between their lateral extension and the horizontal 
spreading of the branches, the greater part of the 
rain which falls upon the tree is made to drop 
from the leaves at the exact distance from the 
trunk where, after it has soaked through the earth, 
it will be received by the extremities of the roots, 
and readily sucked in by the spongioles.” This is 
the notion of indoor bookish theorists. I forget 
who first made the observation, but, as it is re¬ 
peated by almost all writers on vegetable phy¬ 
siology, it deserves notice. Both the facts here 
supposed may be considered as vulgar errors. 
That is, in general , the horizontal extension of 
the roots will be found far to exceed that of the 
branches; and so far from its being true that 
less water falls under the head of a tree than out- 


That branches 
are the same 
length as roots 
a fallacy, and 
that the ends of 
branches drop 
on to the ends of 
roots a fallacy. 


Branches 
shorter than 
roots, and the 
drop is through 
them, not out¬ 
side them. 


32 


THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED [Part II. 


Form of the 
root a flat cir¬ 
cle, like a 
wheel; form 
of the head a 
globular circle, 
like a ball. 


side it, there is every reason to believe that more 
falls there. 

In reference to the comparative length of the 
roots and branches, there is doubtless great dif¬ 
ference in different trees. But generally it is 
probable that the aggregate bulk of timber in 
the root, is equal to that of the trunk and head ; 
and as the roots creep along the surface of the 
earth, they form a flat circle, like a wheel round 
a single tree, instead of a spherical circle like 
a ball as the head does. Consequently, the 
roots make up by their horizontal length for 
their want of opportunity to shoot perpendicu¬ 
larly either upward or downward. Those who 
will not trouble themselves to dig for this truth, 
may see it in trees which are apt to throw up 
suckers, such as the elm or aspen. Suckers may 
be seen from these at four, or perhaps I might 
say at eight or ten, times the distance of the length 
of the branches from the trunk; and were we to 
imagine that part of the head of a tree which is 
above the lowest tier of branches taken off, and 
added to the ends of the lowest tier, so as to 
form a circle in one plane like a wheel, instead 
of a spherical circle like a ball, we should not 
have a bad idea of the general shape of the root, 
both in form and extent of circumference. Con- 


Chap. I.] BY THE SURFACE OF THE ROOTS. 


33 


sequently, the extremities of the roots, with 
their supposed spongioles, are very far removed 
from the supposed drip from the outside of the 
head of a tree. 

But in reference to this drip round the out¬ 
side of the heads of trees, the phenomenon may 
be seen from umbrellas and roofs. But trees are 
neither umbrellas nor roofs, as those who take 
shelter under them will find. As long as their 
leaves and branches can absorb or hold on their 
surface the mass which falls, they will afford 
shelter. But after that the rain will not trickle 
outside the circle, but perpendicularly through 
every part of the head. Thus much for what 
takes place when the trees are in leaf. For six 
or seven months, however, they are without 
leaves. And in the spring they are without 
them, at the particular time when the great 
upward supply is required for the very form¬ 
ation of the leafy canopy which is supposed to 
supply the supposed circle of spongioles. This The head robs 
leafy canopy, far from supplying the circle nttie rain^but; 
around it and below it with rain , robs it of as *> a y s this ?y 

condensation. 

much as is absorbed by the leaves, or as is eva¬ 
porated from their surface. But this robbery 
is much more than compensated by the conden¬ 
sation which takes place whenever the atmo- 


D 


34 


THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED [Part II. 


sphere is moist and warmer than the trees. 
For this fact I shall quote the admirable out¬ 
door observer, White of Selborne: “ In heavy 
fogs, on elevated situations especially, trees are 
perfect alembics; and no one who has not at¬ 
tended to such matters can imagine how much 
water one tree will distil in a night’s time, by 
condensing the vapour which trickles down the 
twigs and boughs, so as to make the ground 
below quite in a float. In Newton Lane, in 
October, 1775, on a misty day, a particular oak, 
in leaf\ dropped so fast that the cart-way stood 
in puddles, and the ruts ran with water, though 
the ground in general was dusty.” And that 
part of a road which is overshadowed by a tree 
may, in summer, play the part of Gideon’s fleece. 
In rain, it may be dry and dusty, when all be¬ 
yond it is moist; and, in condensing weather, 
it may be drenched, when all beyond it is dry 
and dusty. This condensation much more than 
makes up for the small quantity of rain-water 
which is arrested by the leaves. 

Roget. remarks: u We have here a striking 
instance of that beautiful correspondence which 
has been established between processes belonging 
to different departments of nature, and which 
are made to concur in the production of remote 


Chap. I.] BY THE SURFACE OF THE ROOTS. 


35 


effects, that could never have been accomplished 
without these preconcerted and harmonious ad¬ 
justments.” Fine words, certainly! but prce - 
terea nihil . 

It is indeed possible, nay probable, that 
Almighty wisdom has designed an additional 
supply of water to the roots of the noblest of his 
vegetable works. But granting this to be so, 
we are not to look for the hand of the Creator in 
an imaginary water-shed, from the outside of the 
head of the tree, on to an imaginary circle of 
spongioles, which, if they existed there, would 
probably absorb no water; but in the provision 
of an apparatus for condensing the watery 
vapour of the air, and for shedding it, through 
the whole head of the tree, on to the woody and 
really absorbing part of the root. 

That this water-shed takes place, Roget may 
convince himself oculis Jidelibus. For rain and 
condensation only fall from leaves or boughs 
after they have accumulated into much larger 
drops than those which fall as rain. And where 
trees overhang roads, these large drops, by the 
force of impact, eject the fine sand, and leave a 
surface of rough stones beneath the whole circle 
of the head of the tree, not merely round the 
outside of it. This fact may be seen . 

D 2 


36 


THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED [Part II. 


Rain and con¬ 
densation often 
shed inwards 
or towards the 
stem. 


Where branches form elbows, pointing down¬ 
ward, the dropping will sometimes almost amount 
to a stream, and will form a conspicuous mark 
on the road. Where boughs are horizontal, each 
drop falls perpendicularly, as soon as gravity 
overcomes cohesion; that is, as soon as the 
force of its weight is greater than its power of 
sticking to the bough. But not a drop of rain 
falls under trees in its natural form and size. 
In many cases accumulation goes on till the 
weight of water can bend the leaf to discharge 
its contents. 

Leaves are not fitted on to each other like 
tiles or slates on a roof; and it is impossible that 
the watershed of trees should be outward or 
from the stem, because the continuity of the 
outward channel is interrupted at the outward 
end of every individual leaf. But it is by no 
means impossible that the water-shed should be 
inward or towards the stem. And this, the 
very reverse of Koget’s fact, sometimes is the 
fact. Where leaves incline upward from the 
twigs, the twigs upward from the branches, and 
the branches upward from the stem, in rainy 
or condensing weather almost every drop of 
water is shed towards and down the stem; and 
the stem of a tree stands the model of a river, 


Chap. I.] BY THE SURFACE OF THE ROOTS. 


37 


rich in the supply of water directly as the num¬ 
ber and size of its branches. 

This streaming of the stem may be observed 
in all trees, but differing in quantity as infinitely 
as the direction of the growth of their branches 
and twigs may differ. It is most remarkable 
and most profuse in Lombardy poplars. To 
this day they may be seen deluged in tears for 
the fate of their rash and hapless brother: 

“ Quam platanus vino tam gaudet populus unda.”* 

But how, by Roget’s and the received system, 
shall these slim sisters of Phaeton drink their 
own tears ? Their capillary stomata (since the 
jargon of science will mingle “ verbis Grseca La- 
tinis ”) are at the distance of the vertical height 
of the trees from their stems, instead of the hori¬ 
zontal width of the branches. This maybe seen 
from suckers. And how is the poor oak to enjoy 
the drip from his own wide-spread branches, 
when its single capillary stoma is buried, per- 


* In reference to Ovid’s physiology of the plane, Macro- 
bius writes: “ Is Hortensius platanos suas vino irrigare 
consuevit: adeo ut in actione quadam, quam habuit cum 
Cicerone susceptam, precario a Tullio postulasset, ut locum 
dicendi permutaret secum : abire enim in villam necessario 
se velle, ut vinum platano, quam in Tusculano posuerat, ipse 
suffunderet.” 

d 3 


38 


THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED [Part II. 


Argument from 
the Gardener’s 
Chronicle con¬ 
sidered. 


haps, a hundred feet directly under the centre 
of its stem ? 

Owing to condensation, the ground under¬ 
neath the head of a tree is much more watered 
than that outside it; and, besides this, it escapes 
the great evaporation of the summer drought 
and heat. For when the rays “ nimium propinqui 
solis” are the hottest, its canopy of leaves is the 
densest. 

The editor of the “Gardener’s Chronicle” 
thinks that roots absorb only by their ends, 
because gardeners dig manure in only round the 
outside of the semicircle of the roots of their 
fruit-trees, without perceiving that the fact cuts 
against his own argument. If they were to dig 
it in nearer the stem their spade would destroy 
the really absorbent part of the root, the woody 
part; and, as “omne majus continet in se minus,” 
they would also destroy the much-valued spon- 
gioles. By digging round the outside, they destroy 
little more than the then useless silver ends. These 
are instantly replaced, shoot freely through the 
loosened earth and manure, soon become woody, 
and absorb the chemically nutritious juices and 
gases evolved by the manure. Trees which re¬ 
quire forcing should be top-dressed and irrigated 
either with water or liquid manure over all their 


Chap. I.] BY THE SURFACE OF THE ROOTS. 


39 


roots, but manure should be only dug in outside 
their extremities. 

But the spade actually is the great unknown 
destroyer of our walbfruit trees. On a practical 
'postmortem examination and inquest on them, 
the gardener finds that the only remains of roots 
are in the bad lower soil. And his verdict, in¬ 
stead of tree-slaughter against himself, is felo de 
se: that is, died because the roots would strike 
too low. But he omits to observe the reason of 
this, which is, that the spade has destroyed 
every upper rootlet as it was made. “ Agrum 
pessimum mulctari cujus dominus audit non 
ostendit villicum;” and I wish that the editor of 
the “ Gardener’s Chronicle,” instead of quoting 
these misdeeds as authority, would correct them 
as errors, — would say to the man of practice, 
“ Don’t dig so deep,”— and inform him that the 
roots of his trees would be happy to revel in the 
upper soil, if his spade would let them. 

Some trees have a tendency to form buds and 
to shoot wherever stem, branch, or root is 
wounded. This tendency in the horse-chesnut 
is so strong, that I think it might be inoculated 
for branches wherever they were wished for. 
The wounds made by the spade are a frequent 
source of suckers from the roots of fruit-trees, 


The spade the 
destroyer of 
wall-fruit trees. 


40 


THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED [Part II. 


Unphilosophi- 
cal remedies. 


and the careless or ignorant gardener will show 
a fine bed of suckers with a dead trained fruit- 
tree. 

The only remedies to this suicidal diving pro¬ 
pensity of the roots of fruit-trees, which science 
has as yet suggested, are to plant them on 
mounds, or on layers of tiles!! This is as bad 
as to order the canal to be dug deeper where it 
ran over the side! Roots, by nature, have so 
strong a propensity to keep the surface, that 
they may be observed, after diving from the 
wall to a grass-walk, to rise so completely 
above it as to be injured by the scythe, or by the 
hob-nailed hoof of the clod who has condemned 
them as divers, and who, when they emerge 
from the protection of the grass-walk, again 
forces them to take a leader out of reach of his 
spade. But if the practice of the gardener is to 
be law, what does he do with the ends of the 
roots when he pots his plants ? He ruthlessly 
cuts them all off smack and smooth! And, in 
this case, if he diminished their heads, his plants 
would not droop as they do , and as my plants 
do not 

Planting forest-trees on mounds has, probably, 
arisen from the malpractice of the garden. The 
system is bad. It makes the roots of the young 


Chap. I.] BY THE SURFACE OF THE ROOTS. 


41 


plant more accessible to drought, and less acces¬ 
sible to watering; while the roots of the older 
plant, when unfenced, are entirely denuded by 
cattle treading away the earth, and suffer both 
from gnawing and treading. Trees should be 
planted at the exact level which their roots are 
afterwards to pursue, and a pan made round 
them by a slightly raised rim. This saves time 
and water in irrigating them, while it prevents 
overflows from without, to which the cup system 
is liable. 

The roots of a wall-fruit tree form a horizontal 
semicircular fan, as the head forms a vertical 
semicircular fan; the roots being kept up by 
the bad soil, and kept down by the action of the 
spade. And on account of the lateral upward 
growth of roots, alluded to in another place, the 
older the fruit-tree the less deeply the spade 
should go over its roots. 

This is a long story; perhaps I ought to say 
digression. But I cannot pass over the belief in 
the spongioles and capillary stomata at the ends 
of roots, and that the food of plants is solely 
absorbed by them, as one of those speculative 
theories and pretty notions which our marvel- 
mongering nature is so prone to adopt, and so 
loth to part with. The notion pretends to the 


That roots 
absorb only by 
sponges or ca¬ 
pillary stomata 
at their ends a 
scientific vulgar 
error. 


42 


THE FOOD OF TREES IS IMBIBED [Part II. 


Whether this 
is true or not 
of vital import- 
ance to trans¬ 
planting. 


authority of practice, and to stand on experiment 
and facts. It is not a vulgar vulgar error, but a 
scientific vulgar error; and should the man of 
common sense reproach me that I have wasted 
much time to prove what we need no ghost to 
tell us, my excuse is, that men of uncommon sense 
(I think, Senebier first) have repeated these sup¬ 
posed facts one after the other, till they have 
become acknowledged data, which vitiate our 
physiological theories at their earliest source, in 
regard to the first absorption of food by plants. 

Thus much in regard to vegetable physiology 
in general. In regard to transplanting in par¬ 
ticular, the truth or falsehood of this fact is of 
every importance; since, if the life or death of 
a radish depended on the extremity of its root, 
an argument might be drawn that the life of 
other plants might depend on the extremities of 
theirs. But when we find this assertion to be 
totally devoid of foundation, — when we find the 
radish, deprived of all the immature parts of its 
root, absorbing nourishment for itself till it has 
replaced all its mutilations of head and heel,—we 
shall have the less horror of depriving our trans¬ 
planted trees of their rootlets by simple excision; 
and we shall be the less apt to waste labour in 
taking up long contused roots (from this cause, 


Chap. I.] BY THE SURFACE OF THE ROOTS. 


43 


almost sure to die) in, after all, the impossible 
attempt to get at the terminating ideal spongioles 
or capillary stomata , which are names as hand¬ 
some as mingled Greek and Latin can make 
them, but “ vox et praaterea nihil.” 

As long as the root is unripe,—in other words, 
unwoody,—it is wholly useless; that is, it has 
no upward conduit for the sap. The small fibres 
of the root bear the same relation to a tree as 
children to a commonwealth. So far from being 
a present source of strength, they are an actual 
expense and outgoing; though, by their growth 
and maturity,—that is, when the unripe fibres 
become woody roots, and the children become 
men, — they are the very springs of vital energy. 


Ends of roots 
to a tree what 
children are to 
a common¬ 
wealth. 


44 


COURSE OF TIIE SAP. 


[Part II. 


Course of the 
upward sap 
through the 
whole of the 
wood. 


CHAP. II. 

COURSE OF THE SAP FROM THE ROOT TO THE LEAF, 
AND BACK TO THE ROOT. 

But, however much we may dispute on how the 
sap gets into the tree, we shall all agree that it 
does get in somehow; and, but for Dr. Lindley, I 
believe we should all agree on the course which 
it then takes. 

The upward course of the sap is through the 
whole woody part of the roots, stem, and branches 
of the tree. This woody part has been hitherto 
divided by physiologists into two parts, the heart- 
wood or dead wood; and the alburnum or sap- 
wood, that is, the unripe and outside rings, or 
latest deposits of wood around the stem. It was 
considered that the heart-wood really was dead 
wood, and that the upward course of the sap 
was through the alburnum, or sap-wood, or 
latest rings of wood only. In March, 1832, I 
remarked the stems of some birch-trees, which 
I had cut down in the previous November, 
bleeding from the heart-wood. I was not then 
aware that Coulon had about this time observed 


Chap. II.] 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


45 


the same thing in cutting down some poplar- 
trees in France. I afterwards satisfied myself, 
in various ways, that the whole of the wood is 
the conduit for the upward course of the sap. 

In April, 1832, I found a birch-tree in Dyr- 
rham Park, of from sixty to seventy years’ 
growth, which had a large scar from injuries 
from cart-wheels. The scar might have existed 
from fifteen to thirty years, being perfectly in¬ 
durated, and in parts turned to touchwood. I 
tapped the scar in the centre with a very large 
gimlet. I had not pierced an inch before it ran 
freely while boring. I bored about three inches 
in depth. The tree was about nine inches 
through, in the direction of the bore. The dead 
surface-wood was perhaps a little more than a 
quarter of an inch in depth. The dropping was 
so frequent as almost to amount to a stream. 
This could only have flowed from the heart- 
wood; since no alburnum, or new wood, had 
been deposited on the scar for about twenty 
years. 

It is stated that Coulon accidentally observed 
the sap flowing in the heart-wood, in felling 
some poplar trees, as I believe, about 1830. His 
farther proof of boring with an augur, in my 
opinion, goes for nothing. As the augur must 


The upward sap 
goes through 
the heart-wood; 
proof by expe¬ 
riment. 


46 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


[Part II- 


The upward sap 
flows through 
the sap-wood ; 
proof by exam¬ 
ple. 


have pierced the sap-wood as well as the heart- 
wood, who shall say whether the stream which 
followed came from the sap-wood, or from the 
heart-wood, or from both, or how much from 
each ? If, according to MM. Coulon, Desfon- 
taines, and Thouin, it came from the heart-wood 
alone , the experiment would prove too much. 
It would prove that the sap-wood is not a con¬ 
duit for the sap. This is not only nonsense, but 
undoubted nonsense. 

Or if any one does doubt that sap-wood con¬ 
ducts the sap, let him look at the case of plashed 
hedgerows; where the entire heart-wood and 
pith are cut through, and a strip of sap-wood 
left no thicker than a lath : yet this thin conduit 
supplies sap to long thick branches sufficient to 
enable them to live and to grow permanently. 
I do not allude to layers laid sideways in the 
earth, but to plashers laid sideways in the air, 
as in hedges. 

People have indeed always doubted, and some 
still do doubt, whether the heart-wood is a con¬ 
duit to the sap; among others, Dr. Lindley, in 
1849 (nineteen years after Coulon’s discovery), 
sticks to this old error. -He says: “ When the 
tissue of the concentric layers is filled with 
secretions, it ceases to perform any vital func- 


Chap. II.] 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


47 


tions. The dead and fully formed central layers 
are called heart-wood.” 

The Doctor is not the first of physiologists, 
but he is the first of them who has told us the 
reason of the death of the heart-wood. It 
chokes itself with its own secretions. Yet, 
though the heart-wood has no longer room for 
the upward sap, it is not so choke-full but what, 
by and by, we shall find the Doctor forcing it 
to swallow the downward sap. 

In fact, both the heart-wood and the sap- 
wood are conduits for the upward sap. To con¬ 
vince us that this is so, we want nothing farther 
than these two proofs adduced by myself: that 
is, the boring through an old scar into the 
heart-wood of a birch proves, by the stream 
which follows, that the heart-wood is a conduit 
for the sap; and the existence of plashers 
proves that the sap-wood is a conduit for the sap. 
How I wish that Dr. Lindley would allow us 
this one bit of undoubtful ground in vegetable 
physiology to catch our breath on! 

Certainly, in respect to first getting the sap 
into the tree, we have had doubt and difficulty 
enough. Now for the next doubt and difficulty. 
Now for getting the sap up the tree. I was 
going to say, that no one has an idea of the 


By what me¬ 
chanical power 
is the upward 
sap raised? 


48 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


[Part II. 


cause, and laws, and mechanism by which the 
sap is forced up. But there I should be wrong. 
Every one has his own idea, and every one’s idea 
differs from that of his neighbour. To show on 
what extraordinarily loose ground these ideas 
stand, I will quote two countenanced by per¬ 
haps the keenest intellect that ever wrote on 
the subject. Sir Humphrey Davy thought that 
one cause of the ascent of the sap was the mo¬ 
tion caused in trees by wind; that another 
cause was the contraction and expansion of the 
wood from alternation of heat and cold. Look 
into the hot-house and the hot-bed. In these 
neither of these causes exists. Not a breath of 
wind enters; nor is any alternation of heat and 
cold allowed. Yet in these the ascent of the sap 
is freest. And if we look out of doors, I should 
say that the sap would be a slow traveller, if its 
ascent depended on wind and cold. Here, then, 
I cannot back the favourite, and have a sort of 
blind leaning for Turgescence , or Swelling. A 
dark horse, certainly! and I am all in the dark 
about him myself. 

Perhaps the largest blocks of stone ever 
quarried by man (I do not except Pompey’s 
Pillar for length) are from the granite quarries 
in Finland. One mode of rending these from 
their beds was to drill holes along their sides, 


Ciiap. TL] 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


49 


and to fill these holes with water in a frost. 
Here “ weak water ” splits the hardest sub¬ 
stance by turgescence, or swelling, without a 
star on its frozen column. This plan was 
changed to plugging the holes with dry wood, 
and wetting these plugs simultaneously. Here, 
again, the mysterious and marvellous power of 
turgescence performs its Herculean task with 
apparently very weak implements. A spoonful 
of water and a small bolt of wood form the 
blood and frame of a giant who, give him finger¬ 
hold, makes a joke of Milo. He changes his 
name sometimes, though. When he acts on ice, 
I should have called him dilatation. When he 
acts by heat, his name is expansion. And to 
him is confided the growth of geological vege¬ 
tation. His endogens are the Alps, the Hima¬ 
laya, and the Andes; his exogens, Vesuvius, 
Etna, and Madeira. Who shall guess from what 
depths within the earth these last receive their 
red-hot sap ? But even to raise it, after leaving 
the earth, through the pressure of the Atlantic, 
perhaps some 30,000 feet, is not a bad squirt. 
We have then, in the roots and stem, wood and 
moisture, the implements of turgescence, — a 
force unlimited in power. How to describe the 
steps by which it is to raise the sap a hundred 


E 


50 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


[Part IT. 


Where is the 
sap elaborated ? 
Whence the new 
growth in 
girthing de¬ 
posited ? 


feet, I confess I do not see. But I guess that 
some day it will be seen, that turgescence acting 
on living organisation is the main mechanical 
power in the ascent of the sap. Cut a tree, 
indeed, or grub it if you please, and place it on 
its roots in a pond, and turgescence will by no 
means send the water up the dead wood. On 
the contrary, all but the immersed end of the 
tree, and its immediate neighbourhood, will dry 
as if it were in the timber-yard. This is as far 
as my horse Turgescence will carry me, which is 
not very far. And I end as I began—we are 
all in the dark about it! 

According to an experiment of Hales, which 
has been since verified by others, the sap rises 
with a force sufficient to support the pressure of 
a column of water of double the height which 
would burst an ordinary hogshead cask. And 
we see that it ascends to prodigious heights, yet 
we are ignorant how or by what agency. 

We see also the miraculous and universal sys¬ 
tem of transubstantiation with which we are 
surrounded in the vegetable world, yet we are 
not only ignorant of the chemistry which pro¬ 
duces this transubstantiation, — which, from 
absorbed moisture and gases, forms the immense 
variety and the immense quantity of all “ the 


Chap. IT.] 


COURSE OF THE SAI\ 


51 


proper juices ” and “ peculiar acids ” of all the 
various woods, bark, leaves, flowers, scents, 
fruits, seeds, &c. of that most exquisite kingdom, 
—but we are even ignorant in what part of the 
plant the elaboration takes place, or from what 
part of the plant the new growth is deposited. 

After the ascent of the sap, it is supposed to 
be elaborated in the leaf. It passes from the 
wood into the woody fibrous, or stalky, parts of 
the leaf; thence into their spongy, porous 
(parenchymatous) parts; and thence backwards 
into the green inner bark of the shoot, which is 
called “ the herbaceous envelope.” So that the 
leaves and buds may be considered as the con¬ 
duits, connecting the upward with the downward 
current of the sap. In descending through the 
bark, the elaborated sap is supposed to deposit 
the annual ring of new wood (alburnum), and 
the annual ring of new bark (the new cortical 
layer), (both at once ? or which first ?), round 
the branches, stem, and roots, and also to furnish 
the new growth of the roots in length. 

Whether any chemical change or elaboration 
of the sap really does take place in the leaf, 
greater than in any other part of the tree, I 
shall not question; but I think that possibly one 
chief duty of the leaf is to give off the supernu- 


Sap supposed to 
be elaborated in 
the leaf. 


Growth on 
girthing sup¬ 
posed to be de¬ 
posited from 
this elaborated 
sap in return¬ 
ing down the 
bark. 


First office of 
the leaf, transpi¬ 
ration and ex¬ 
cretion. 


52 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


[Part It. 


merary watery parts necessary to take up from 
the soil and conduct to their destination the car¬ 
bonic acid, ammonia, and inorganic matters 
requisite for vegetable life, and that it exhales 
the unnecessary gases, &c. after the decomposi¬ 
tion of the constituents absorbed from the soil. 
And is not the great accumulation of ash, or 
incombustible or inorganic matter, found in the 
leaf, as compared with that found in the wood, 
an argument that the leaf is the organ of excre¬ 
tion ? The quantity of ashes or inorganic matter 
left by the leaves when burnt is perhaps from 
twelve hundred to two thousand per cent, greater 
than is left by the wood, that is, it is from 
twelve to twenty times as much. And it is 
possibly on this account that these organs of 
excretion are themselves excreted. The division 
of trees into deciduous and non-deciduous is not 
strictly correct. All are deciduous; that is, 
all defoliate or lose their leaves,—those which 
we call deciduous generally in about six months, 
those which we call evergreens generally in about 
twelve months. Evergreen trees, however, differ 
in time, but each has its fixed period for defo¬ 
liation. 

Certainly the transpiration or giving off of 
water from the leaf, when exposed to drought, 


Chap. II.] 


COURSE OF TIIE SAP. 


53 


is very rapid, and the communication from 
the root to the leaf very rapid and constant ; 
since on felling trees of thirty or forty feet 
high, while they were shooting in the summer, 
I * have observed the shoots lose their tur- 
gescence, that is, droop, in the course of a few 
minutes from the time that the stem is divided 
from the root. The accurate and admirable 
Hales found that a sunflower, in dry, hot 
weather, gave off two pounds and a half, that is, 
two pints and a half, of water in twelve hours. 
At night, and in moist weather, the quantity was 
much less. Senebier supposes that plants give 
off two-thirds of the water which they absorb. 

Many physiologists imagine that the great use 
of the leaf is to absorb moisture. M. Bonnet 
tells us that the leaf is formed to absorb, chiefly 
from the lower part, because dew ascends. But 
as dew is a condensation of moisture which is 
suspended in the atmosphere, it cannot be said 
to ascend more than to descend ; and the phy¬ 
siologist forgets that rain descends. But I do 
not think that M. Bonnet’s facts are more to be 
depended on than his reasoning. He states 
that, if leaves are floated on water on their upper 
surfaces, they will die as soon as if they were 
not put in water, but if they are floated on their 


Leaves supposed 
by some to ab¬ 
sorb the food of 
plants. 


54 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


[Part II. 


lower surfaces they will remain alive as long as 
if their stalks were immersed in water. I tried 
this experiment in 1836, and found that the 
leaves floated on their upper surfaces remained 
alive as long, or rather longer, than those on 
their lower surfaces; one remained in part alive 
for six weeks. But the fact that detached leaves 
or branches placed on water, but with the ends 
of their stalks out, will remain alive much longer 
than if suspended in the air proves lateral 
absorption. And on this assumption the wetted 
hay-band is placed round the stem of trees 
packed for long journeys. 

I have only had opportunity of seeing these 
theories of M. Bonnet quoted. According to 
this class of physiologists, of which the great 
chemist Liebig is the modern oracle, when trees 
are in full leaf they receive their entire nutri¬ 
ment through their leaves from the atmosphere, 
and “ the complete dryness of the soil ” would 
not then injure them. If this were so, if a 
branch were cut in full leaf, and suspended from 
those among which it grew, it should remain 
alive till the fall of the leaf; or when trees were 
cut down at Midsummer, till the fall of the leaf 
the heads would remain alive, and the roots 
would immediately die. The reverse of this is 


Chap. II.] 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


55 


the case; the roots remain alive, and shoot out 
without any assistance from the atmosphere, 
and the heads immediate^ die. 

If leaves are picked, they will die sooner than 
if the bough is cut on which they stand; if 
the bough is cut, they will fade sooner than if 
the stem is cut on which the bough stands; and 
if the stem is cut, they will fade sooner than if 
the tree is grubbed. All this shows that the 
leaf is fed from the stem, and contradicts Lie¬ 
big’s notion, that leaves feed themselves and their 
parent trees from the atmosphere. 

Cut a branch in a hot sun in June or July. 
In a few minutes its leaves will fade, dry, and 
shrivel. What keeps their living brethren fresh 
and succulent through the fifteen hours’ drought 
and heat of our midsummer sun ? A constant 
supply of sap from the roots. If, indeed, a 
drought in summer or autumn is continued so 
long as to deprive the roots of moisture, the 
leaves will begin to fade; but the leaves will 
recover immediately, if the roots only are 
watered. Doubtless, if the leaves also are 
watered, and wetted hay-bands applied to the 
stems, it will expedite matters. For doubtless 
plants absorb from all parts which are exposed 
to moisture, and excrete, that is, transpire, or 

E 4 


56 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


[Part II. 


give off water, from all parts which are exposed 
to drought. 

Liebig tells us that “ leaves, twigs, and 
branches, when completely matured, as they do 
not become larger, do not need food for their 
support.” Why, then, do they droop when the 
supply is cut off, and revive when the roots only 
are watered ? Let any physiologist of this 
school apply this reasoning to his own “ com¬ 
pletely matured ” body, and cease to supply it 
with food because it has ceased to become larger. 
But if leaves 11 do not become larger,” the plants 
which bear them do. The formation of the 
bud, the downward growth, the growth in girth¬ 
ing, and the growth in elongation of the roots, 
are in full tide when the leaves have ceased “ to 
become larger;” and the leaves are doubtless 
essential to this increase. Suppose a gardener 
were to take Liebig’s word, and to refuse to 
water his pot greenhouse plants when turned 
out for the summer. Not one would survive. 
And why do they require watering when plants 
in the open ground do not ? Because the earth 
in the pots is exposed all round to drought from 
sun and air, while the upper surface only of the 
ground is exposed. If pot-plants are not 
watered, even in our moist English summer, 


57 


Chap. II.] COURSE OF THE SAP. 

their roots would have nothing to imbibe from. 
What faith is the practical man to place in the 
theorist who puts him up to such secrets as 
these? Possibly Liebig may have taken his 
vegetable physiology on trust from others; but 
certainly this is one of a dozen monstrous theo¬ 
ries with which this profound chemist would 
annihilate the very foundations of vegetable 
physiology. “ Mutato nomine, 7 ’ his own words 
to Burdach apply to Liebig: — “ All inquiry is 
arrested by such opinions, when propagated by 
a teacher who enjoys a merited reputation ob¬ 
tained by knowledge and hard labour . 77 

Liebig writes, in reference to ferns, &c.: “They 
resemble in this respect the plants which we 
raise from bulbs and tubers, and which live, 
while young, upon the substances contained in 
their seed, and require no food from the soil 
when their exterior organs of nutrition are 
formed. This class of plants is even at present 
ranked amongst those which do not exhaust the 
soil . 77 According to this, we ought to be able 
to grow our potatoes without any soil at all: but, 
in fact, there is no crop which exhausts the soil 
for itself more than potatoes; there is no crop 
which is more grateful for a change of soil; and 
there is no crop whose growth differs more, 


58 


COURSE OF THE SAF. 


[Part IT. 


according to the different soil in which it is 
grown. Any one of these three facts proves 
that the potato is nourished from the soil, not 
from the air: and under this idea the soil is 
twice hoed after the potatoes are above it; that 
is, it is ‘ Hat hoed ” and hilled up.” And 
Liebig himself says: “ The increase of crops 
obtained by the use of guano is very remark¬ 
able. According to the same authority (Garci- 
laso), the crop of potatoes is increased forty-five 
times by means of it,” and “ I applied to a field 
of potatoes manure consisting of night-soil and 
sulphate of magnesia (Epsom salts), and obtained 
a remarkably large crop.” Again : “ In the first 
year all the different parts of the field produced 
potatoes, but they succeeded best in those di* 
visions which had been manured with peat, 
ashes, lime, and marl.” All these cases prove 
the growth of the potato to be from the soil, not 
from the air. 

If plants draw their nourishment from the 
atmosphere, why do we find plants peculiar 
to peculiar soils ? Let any one farm on the 
idea that the growth is to accrue from the 
atmosphere, not from the soil. If Liebig’s 
views are correct, a landlord should put his 
land up to let, not by the quality of the land, 


Chap. II.] 


COURSE OF TIIE SAP. 


59 


but by the acreage of atmosphere which over¬ 
hangs the land. If, however, he would but 
condescend to follow the example of Dioclesian, 
and plant chemical kale instead of imperial 
cabbages, he would find that he must not leave 
the large leaves on his transplanted greens 
with a view of supporting the plants, but that 
lie must cut the large leaves off because the 
plants cannot support them. 

Liebig writes: “ The verdant plants of warm 
climates are very often such as obtain from the 
soil only a point of attachment , and are not de¬ 
pendent on it for their growth. How extremely 
small are the roots of the Cactus, Sedum, and 
Sempervirum, in proportion to their mass, and 
to the surface of their leaves! ” In the next 
paragraph, he with much naivete refers to ex¬ 
periments of Lukas at Munich; who, by mixing 
charcoal with the soil, gives a wonderful growth 
to “ young tropical plants of all descriptions. 
Among other plants, “ a cactus , planted in a mix¬ 
ture of equal parts of charcoal and earth, throve 
progressively, and attained double its former 
size in the space of a few weeks. The use of 
the charcoal was very advantageous with several 
of the Bromeliacea3 and Liliacea?, with the Citrus 
and Begonia also, and even with the Palmas.” 


GO 


COURSE OF TIIE SAP. 


[Part II. 


Here the roots must have served as more than 
“ only a point of attachment,” and the increased 
growth must have been from the soil, not from 
the air. 

But, according to Liebig, there’s nought like 
chemistry. He would do as much with his 
atmospheric chemistry as the currier with his 
leather. He generates and feeds his leaves by 
the carbonic acid of the atmosphere; and when 
he has done with them, he destroys them with 
the oxygen of the atmosphere. And he forms 
his trees by mechanical patchwork, and by 
juxtaposition, as he would a stalactite, or as he 
would the trees in the garden of a doll’s house. 

“ When the food of a plant is in greater quan¬ 
tity than its organs require for their own perfect 
development, the superfluous nutriment is not 
returned to the soil, but is employed in the 
formation of new organs. At the side of a cell, 
already formed, another cell arises. At the 
side of a twig and leaf, a new twig and a new 
leaf are developed.” 

Again: — 

u The power of absorbing nutriment from the 
atmosphere, with which the leaves of plants are 
endowed, being proportionate to the extent of 
their surface, every increase in the size and 


Chap. II.] 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


G1 


number of these parts is necessarily attended 
with an increase of nutritive power, and a 
consequent further development of new leaves 
and branches.” 

Again: — 

“ The organs of assimilation, at this period of 
their life, receive more nourishment from the 
atmosphere than they employ in their own sus¬ 
tenance ; and when the formation of the woody 
substance has advanced to a certain extent, the 
expenditure of the nutriment, the supply of 
which still remains the same, takes a new di¬ 
rection, and blossoms are produced. The func¬ 
tions of the leaves of most plants cease upon the 
ripening of their fruit, because the products of 
their action are no longer needed. They now 
yield to the chemical influence of the oxygen 
of the air, generally suffer a change in colour, 
and fall off.” 

The Author of nature, and the author of the 
u Chemistry of Physiology,” form their trees on 
widely different principles. No bud contains 
one leaf only, and perhaps “ a sA^-bud ” would 
be a more proper name than “ a leaf- bud.” But 
whether a bud contains the germs of leaves and 
a shoot, or of a flower and fruit, or of all these, 
these buds are all formed at the same time, and 


62 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


[Part II. 


in the year previous to their bursting. They are 
the offspring of no second chemical cause, but of 
the First Cause. They are fairly conceived by 
the Creator, and borne in the womb of the bud 
for perhaps nine months. The generation of a 
new leaf is about as much an affair of chemistry 
as the generation of an animal is. And it is in 
consequence of each bud giving rise to a family 
of leaves that all nature’s growth is symmetrical , 
and not made up of Liebig’s patchwork. 

In the case of a second or midsummer shoot*, 
or of an accidental shoot from the bare stem of 
a tree, a regular bud is first formed; and, conse¬ 
quently, even these accidental shoots have sym¬ 
metrical growth. But a leaf is never formed 
by itself; so that, in the case of an accidental 
shoot from a bare stem, it may be said that a 


* I imagine that a second or midsummer-slioot of the plane 
would be impossible without the previous defoliation of the 
tree, since the winter-buds are ensheathed in the footstalks 
of the leaves. The plane, therefore, is essentially and ne¬ 
cessarily deciduous. And I have observed, at Madeira, that 
the plane is for two or three months without leaves, though 
our oak may in those climes almost be called an evergreen. 
The idea in Madeira is, that the old leaves of the oak are 
only displaced by the bursting of the spring-buds. But the 
buds of every tree I know, except the plane, may burst 
without displacing the leaves, as they actually do in the 
second or midsummer-shoot. 


Chap. TL] 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


C>3 


bud is formed without a previous leaf, but a 
leaf is never formed without a previous bud, as 
Liebig would have it. 

When the heads of coppice-stools or of pol¬ 
lards have been cut, their first year’s growth is 
always late, because they have first to form buds 
before they can shoot. 

The tulip-tree is the most exquisite exempli¬ 
fication of the parturition of a bud. If, between 
May and August, the transparent case is held 
up to the light, the enclosed leaf will be seen 
doubled on itself, and crane-necked. The case 
is broken by the protrusion, not of the leaf only, 
but of the whole shoot or contents of the bud; 
and the case, which remains for some time at 
the foot of each leaf-stalk, is not that which 
contained that leaf, but that which contained 
the embryoes of all its younger brethren. These 
younger brethren, which are beautifully packed 
nearer to the stem than the head of the leaf which 
is to be developed, are successively protruded 
farther from the stem than that leaf. 

There is nothing in which trees differ more 
than in the folding of the leaf in the bud, though 
it is always the same in the same species. Some 
plants, as the vine, have each leaf beautifully 
folded over its batch of younger brethren. It 


04 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


[Part II. 


has then no case; and it is a very frequent rule, 
though with many exceptions, that those leaves 
which have cases are either doubled or rolled on 
themselves, and those leaves which have no cases 
are folded over the remaining bud. 

Neither has the relative time at which the 
fruit-bud or the shoot-bud bursts any reference 
to any general chemical cause, but to the par¬ 
ticular constitution of the tree. For instance, 
the white-thorn, or May, develops its leaves and 
shoots before its flowers; the black-thorn, or sloe, 
develops its flowers before its leaves and shoots. 
And this last is perhaps the most general rule 
among fruit-trees. Many, however, develop 
flowers and shoots simultaneously. 

With regard to the death of the leaf on the 
ripening of the fruit, perhaps the only way in 
which leaves have any reference to the growth 
or to the ripening of the fruit is, that if there 
are too many leaves, their increase abstracts 
from the growth of the fruit, and their shade 
prevents the ripening of it. But do summer 
apples and pears, or do the plants which ripen 
their fruits in June and July, “yield to the 
chemical influence of the oxygen of the air,” and 
defoliate then ? If so, cherry-trees would be 
curious objects about midsummer; so would 


Chap. II.] 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


65 


gooseberries, raspberries, currants, &c. Straw¬ 
berries make their great growth after ripening 
their fruit. 

Deciduous trees defoliate at the end of au¬ 
tumn, though this is very much an affair of 
temperature; that is, the same tree, in different 
latitudes, will keep its leaves later directly as 
warmth, but it will ripen its fruit earlier directly 
as the warmth of the climate. Evergreens shed 
one year’s leaves at the end of winter. But 
neither of these defoliations has the slightest 
reference to the ripening of the fruit; and the 
time of ripening of the fruit has no reference to 
any general chemical causes, but to the par¬ 
ticular constitution of the plant. 

Liebig also makes plants play fast and loose 
in reference to their carbonic acid and oxygen. 
In the light, they absorb carbonic acid, and 
give off oxygen; vice versd, in the dark. All 
plants throughout the globe are, in point of 
time, for six months in the year in the light, and 
for six months in the dark. Therefore, all ever¬ 
green plants and pastures absorb and give off 
each gas for equal periods of time; not in equal 
volumes, however, according to Liebig. 

“ The proper, constant, and inexhaustible 
sources of oxygen gas are the tropics and warm 

F 


66 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


[Part II. 


climates, where a sky seldom clouded permits 
the glowing rays of the sun to shine upon an 
immeasurably luxuriant vegetation. The tem¬ 
perate and cold zones, where artificial warmth 
must replace deficient heat of the sun, produce, 
on the contrary, carbonic acid in superabundance, 
which is expended in the nutrition of the tropical 
plants. The same stream of air which moves by 
the revolution of the earth from the equator to 
the poles brings to us, in its passage from the 
equator, the oxygen generated there, and carries 
away the carbonic acid formed during our winter.” 

Now, in reference to “ the temperate and cold 
zones,” it appears to me a contradiction to say 
that the carbon of all our plants is formed from 
the carbonic acid in the air, and that the super¬ 
abundance of carbonic acid in the air is formed 
by the plants. And in reference to u the tropics 
and warm climates,” suppose this soldier’s* wind 
to have conveyed the two gases to their opposite 
destinations, tropical heat generates aridity and 
sterility, unless where the soil is irrigated by 
nature or art. What farther proof can we want 

* But perhaps Liebig will lay a down-line to the tropics 
above his up-line to the poles. And will he dispatch his 
luggage-trains of heavy carbonic acid gas by that ? Gravity 
forbid!! 


Chap. II.] 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


67 


that the “ immeasurably luxuriant vegetation ” 
is drawn by the roots from the soil, not by the 
leaves from the exotic carbonic acid imported 
on so grand a scale by Liebig from the north 
and south? 

Then, the oxygen evolved by plants is essential 
to the breathing of man and animals. And 
“ thus, cultivation heightens the healthy state of 
a country,” and a previously healthy “ country 
would be rendered quite uninhabitable by the 
cessation of all cultivation.” It appears here 
that we poor beasts grow our air from our 
plants, as well as our plants from our air. But 
has Nature no plants without cultivation? And 
in countries where she has no plants, as on sandy 
deserts, or in regions of eternal snow, is the air 
impure and unwholesome ? Or does more ma¬ 
laria hang over the wide wide sea than over tro¬ 
pical swamps, which are “the proper, constant, 
and inexhaustible sources of oxygen gas”? 

In deciduous trees, and in the greater part of 
English evergreens, if each leaf does not form a 
bud, at least each leaf is accompanied by a bud. 
And I imagine that one essential office of the 
leaf is the formation and summer nutriment of 
the ivinter- bud. Each bud forms a shoot, or a 
flower, or both, the next year. This is the 


Second office of 
leaves, forma¬ 
tion of the 
winter-bud. 


G8 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


[Part II. 


Third office of 
leaves, the 
changing of the 
sap from th e 
upward con¬ 
duit, the 
wood, to the 
downward con¬ 
duit, the bark. 


The growth in 
girthing is from 
the downward 
sap, or depend¬ 
ent on it; proof 
by experiment: 


general rule. But vast quantities of leaves fail 
to mature buds, vast quantities of buds fail to 
produce shoots, and vast quantities of shoots 
fail to grow. Wind, or an insect, or drought, 
or any thing which injures or destroys a leaf, 
will injure or destroy its bud, and consequently 
the next year’s growth of that bud. This is one 
chief cause of the baneful effect of wind on trees. 
Besides this, the circulation of the sap is depen¬ 
dent on the leaf throughout the summer, as it is 
dependent on the bud in the winter. The leaf is 
the turn-table which shifts the sap from the up 
to the down-line in summer, as the bud is this 
turn-table in the winter. Summer and winter 
this traffic is constant; but as it is less in winter, 
so the plant and staff required to wort it is less. 
Keep your turn-tables in order, or lose your traffic. 

That the growth in the girthing, or diameter 
of trees, is a downward growth, that is, from the 
descending sap, or at least that the descending 
sap is necessary for the growth in girth, seems 
clear from this : If a ring of bark is taken off 
round a branch of a tree, so as permanently to 
lay bare the wood, and to intercept the return 
of the sap through the bark, as long as the 
branch lives it will continue to increase in 
girthing above the ring, but not below it; and 


Chap. II.] 


C0U11SE OF THE SAP. 


69 


when such a branch is sawed in two, length¬ 
wise, each additional annual layer may be 
counted above the ring, but none below it. But 
if the growth in girthing were deposited from the 
upward sap, the parts of a branch below the 
ring would be more favourably situated for it 
than the parts above the ring; also, if notches 
are made up a stem, the new growth comes first 
on the highest, and descends in succession. 
From these facts it is believed that, after the 
sap has been elaborated in the leaf in its descent 
through the bark, it deposits the new growth 
in girthing. If, however, the sap is elaborated 
solely in the leaf, and if the growth in girthing 
is deposited solely from the descending sap in 
the bark, the growth in girthing of the plum- 
stock of a grafted peach-tree should be peach; 
but the stock remains still plum, its roots 
plum, its shoots plum, and its suckers plum. 
On the other hand, if the elaboration were wholly 
in the root or stem, and the new growth in 
girthing from the upward sap, the wood and 
leaves of the peach would become plum. But 
purple beech* and variegated sycamore grow 

* Purple beeches may be raised from seed. I have one 
which I planted out in 1837, and have them of all ages since 
that. 

f 3 


and supposed 
to be deposited 
from the bark. 


70 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


[Part II. 


for ever unchanged, though engrafted on common 
stocks, as a single branch of a plant accidentally 
variegated will for ever retain its character. 

When peach-scions are grafted or budded on 
plum-stocks from four to five feet high, the plum- 
stocks taper in the usual way, from below up¬ 
wards ; but in the course of years the growth 
of the peach appears to overpower the stock, 
and it will be seen to taper from above down¬ 
wards. This over-growth says distinctly that it 
comes from above; but that this over-growth 
is plum, not peach, says as distinctly that it 
is not solely from above. I think it, then, pro¬ 
bable that the upward sap may communicate 
laterally throughout from the wood to the bark; 
and that, for the growth in girthing, it may be 
necessary to bring together, on the common 
ground on which the new external layer of 
wood and the new internal layer of bark are 
deposited, a sap which has been subjected to a 
triple elaboration, namely, juices of the upward 
sap — the product of chemical decomposition, as¬ 
similation, and elaboration in the stem, and 
those of the downward sap — which have been 
subjected to respiration, transpiration, and elabo¬ 
ration in the leaf, and to all these processes in 
their descent through the bark ; finally, that 


Chai\ II.] 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


71 


a fourth elaboration of those saps may take 
place, on their junction between the wood and 
the bark, for the deposit of the new growth in 
girthing there. I confess that this is terrible 
guess-work; but I choose and state the theory 
which appears to me to have the least guess¬ 
work. As I have said throughout, all is doubt 
and difficulty. We may at least acknowledge our 
ignorance in the affair. To be ignorant is bad 
enough; but to be ignorant of one’s own igno¬ 
rance is worse. If a man knows that he has lost 
his way, he will at least go carefully; he will be 
on the look-out, and be the more likely to find it. 

It is certain that great chemical changes, or 
elaboration of the sap, must take place in the 
root or stem before it reaches the leaf since sap 
of very different qualities is drawn from the 
stems of different trees. Witness the sugar 
from the maple and birch, the resin from the 
fir, &c., &c., which are found in the heart-wood; 
also, the alteration of the heart-wood in density, 
and the change of sap-wood into heart-wood, 
argue elaboration in the stem, and deposit from 
the upward sap. 

It is also certain that great chemical changes, 
or elaboration of the sap, must take place in the 
bark, or elsewhere, after it has left the leaf; since 


But elaboration 
certainly 
takes place be¬ 
fore the sap 
reaches the 
leaf, 


and also after 
it quits the leaf. 


72 


COURSE OF THE SAF. 


[Part II. 


Received theo¬ 
ries of growth 
in girthing. 


wood of very different qualities is deposited on 
the stem of the same grafted tree. 

Of the fact which I have supposed probable, 
namely, the lateral communication of the sap 
throughout the wood to the bark, I will give 
proof immediately, while considering the office 
of the pith (or medulla, “marrow”), and its 
rays or silver grain (medullary rays), which 
many have supposed to be the means of this 
lateral communication between the pith and the 
bark. But I will first state those theories, in 
reference to the growth in girthing, which have 
been most generally accepted. 

Grew said that the new layer of wood is 
formed from a viscid substance, to which he 
gave the name of cambium . But where is the 
cambium itself formed ? How and where elabo¬ 
rated? Duhamel thought that the last year's 
layer of bark was converted into this year’s 
layer of wood. We can see that this is not the 
case. Du Petit-Thouars thinks that the new 
layer of wood is formed by the buds (though I 
believe the origin of this theory is due to Dar¬ 
win) ; that the fibres in the new layer of wood 
are the roots of the buds, which, at the bursting 
of the buds, run between the last year’s bark 
and wood to the ends of the roots. 


Chap. 11.] 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


73 


Dr. Lindley thus confidently and complacently 
concludes his statement of the theory of Darwin 
and Du Petit-Thouars: — “ The elongation of 
the leaf-bud upwards gives rise to new axes with 
their appendages; their elongation downwards 
increases the diameter of that part of the axis 
which pre-existed, and produces roots.” 

The argument from the grafted stock is, I 
think, stronger against this theory than against 
the growth from the descending sap ; for though 
the Doctor may adopt the idea of the lateral 
flow of sap, and make it necessary to irrigate 
the roots of the buds, it would scarcely have the 
power to metamorphose an actual growing fibre 
of peach-wood into a fibre of plum-wood. 

Dutrochet and Link bring us back to Hales’s 
doctrine of the all-importance of the pith. In¬ 
deed, Dutrochet would establish the omnipresence 
of the pith. He tells us that each division be¬ 
tween the annual layers of wood is a pith for 
the layer outside it (let us call these concen- 
trical piths, to distinguish them from the central 
pith); and that, in addition to the original me¬ 
dullary rays, or silver grain, which run from the 
central pith or medulla to the bark, and which 
are annually prolonged through each successive 
concentrical pith and layer of wood, — in addition 


The pith or 
medulla, and 
medullary rays 
or silver grain. 


74 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


[P4RT II. 


Medullary rays 
longitudinal 
plates, only 
bounded in 
length by the 
height of trees 
and length of 
branches and 
roots. 


The shake, and 
cup-shake. 


to these, intermediate medullary rays are deve¬ 
loped from each new concentrical pith, which 
run from that new concentrical pith to the 
bark, and are annually prolonged. Indeed, as 
very few medullary rays could be developed in a 
seedling of perhaps half an inch in girthing, it 
seems only natural that the number of rays 
should increase with the growth of the tree. 
Otherwise, when the girthing of the tree had 
increased from half an inch to thirty feet, the 
medullary rays would stand very far apart at 
their outward ends; and in the bark of thirty 
feet circumference there would be only the same 
number of rays as in the bark of half an inch 
circumference. The new rays, however, have 
no right strictly to the name of medullary , since 
they do not originate in the central pith or me¬ 
dulla. The medullary rays, which appear like 
the spokes of a wheel when the stem is cut 
across, are, in fact, thin plates running the 
whole length of the stem, roots, and branches. 
In width they increase every year by the width 
of the new layer of wood across which they ex¬ 
tend to the bark, and in length they increase 
every year by the length of the new shoot of the 
branches and roots. 

The medullary rays and the concentrical 


Chap. II.] 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


75 


piths are so far distinct from the wood, that 
what are absurdly called, and commonly be¬ 
lieved to be, shakes arise in them. All the 
shakes which I have observed show on each side 
of the tree, from which I imagine they must be 
the result of disease in the original medullary 
rays of the seedling: for one can scarcely sup¬ 
pose sympathy between two opposite new me¬ 
dullary rays which have no junction with each 
other; nor would one have anticipated this in 
two opposite original rays. That the shakes 
pass through the bark shows, I think, that the 
rays of the wood communicate with those of the 
bark. These shakes often rise to a great height, 
and are never cured. A diseased concentric pith 
is called a cup-shake . 

The concentric pfth, or cup-shake, may be 
called finite ; the medullary ray shake, infinite, 
by comparison : that is, a cup-shake is conical, 
and cannot extend above the cone of the year’s 
growth in which it is generated. All the timber, 
therefore, which is above that cone, or outside it, 
is sound. The medullary ray shake may be con¬ 
tinually prolonged upward, downward, and out¬ 
ward and inward, with the growth of the tree. 

The new medullary rays proceeding from the 
new rings of pith may be easily seen in oaks: 


76 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


[Part II. 


Lateral as well 
as longitudinal 
flow of sap 
through the 
whole wood. 


and I think that the medullary rays may be 
seen to prolong themselves into the latest layers 
of bark, if the stem of a living oak-tree is cut 
across ; at least, there is a white line across 
these layers of bark, opposite the end of each 
medullary ray. 

Some physiologists have supposed a lateral 
communication of the sap between each and all 
the annual layers of wood by means of these 
medullary rays, or silver grain. But to show 
what guess-work vegetable physiology consists 
of, others suppose that these rays are merely 
conductors of atmospheric air between the bark 
and the pith. That there is a lateral trans¬ 
mission of sap throughout the wood by some 
means or other, I think may be argued from the 
existence of ringed branches. Indeed, were it 
not for this lateral communication, whether 
branches were ringed or not, their buds, leaves, 
fruits, and shoots could only be supplied with 
upward sap from the last year’s growth of wood 
on which they are placed; and the upward sap 
of every annual growth of wood, except the last, 
would be confined within the limits of the cone 
formed by each annual growth. 

I have a bough of a pear-tree which I ringed 
for the space of an inch in June, 1832, and 


Chap. II.] 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


77 


which I cut off the tree in December, 1843. It 
bore fruit for the last ten of these eleven years, 
though the rest of the tree had never borne fruit 
up to the last-named year. The branch was 
alive when I cut it off. The woody part above 
the ring is, owing to its annual growth in girth¬ 
ing, double the size of the ringed part. 

It is clear that every part of the interior of 
this branch—that is, of the woody part of it— 
which existed when it was ringed in 1832 was 
in 1843 divided from the exterior bark, and 
consequently from every bud and leaf, by eleven 
annual sheaths or growths; and the upward 
sap, which nourished the bud, the leaf, the 
shoot, and the fruit in 1843, must have been 
supplied to them from the old ringed interior 
wood by lateral transmission through the eleven 
newer annual growths of wood. 

It must, however, be observed that the cone 
formed at the top of each annual growth of wood 
is not a closed cone, but an open cone. The top 
of each cone is, in fact, a crater . The pith 
passes through this crater, and the top bud is 
seated on this pith. The pith of each side-bud 
also joins the pith of the twig to which it is 
attached, as the pith of each branch which ema¬ 
nates from the stem joins the pith of the stem. 


The longitudi¬ 
nal pith-chan¬ 
nels extend 
throughout 
the tree, from 
the pith of the 
original seed¬ 
ling to the 
finest ramifica¬ 
tions of the 
roots and 
branches of the 
largest tree 
which is entirely 
alive. 


78 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


[Part II. 


Diminution in 
the size of the 
pith and its 
disappearance 
vulgar errors. 


This may be seen to be so in Plate I. page 232.; 
and also, if you divide an end-bud of a horse- 
chestnut branch, or if you divide the branch at 
any of the joints, where one year’s growth ends, 
and the next begins. The channel of the pith 
may be seen to be continuous through the head 
of each annual cone; of the same size as the 
upper part of the older growth, and considerably 
smaller than the lower part of the newer growth. 
The pith, in fact, tapers upwards precisely as 
the shoot does; and the pith of the new year’s 
shoot, notwithstanding its communication with 
the taper top of the pith of the last year’s shoot, 
stands with as broad a basis as that of the seed¬ 
ling. I think that this junction of the taper 
top of the pith of one year’s shoot, with the 
broad base of the pith of the next year’s shoot, 
is the origin of the ideas that the pith of each 
shoot becomes annually smaller than that of the 
shoot above it, by the new annual pressure from 
without of the wood, and that the pith even¬ 
tually disappears. Both these ideas are vulgar 
errors. Dr. Lindley believes (or did, in 1849) 
of the pith, that, “ its office of nourishing the 
young parts being accomplished, it is of no 
farther importance, and dies.” This may be so, 
certainly, but I wonder what the Doctor’s reasons 


Chap. II.] 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


79 


are for thinking so; the same, perhaps, as for 
thinking that all heart-wood is dead-wood. 
What other parts of the tree is the Doctor pre¬ 
pared to dispense with ? That a tree will live 
when the original central pith, and nearly all 
the heart-wood, are dead and gone , we know; 
and so will a man when one of his lungs is gone: 
and the man and the tree are equally benefited 
by the loss. 

The difference in size, between the top of the 
pith of one year’s shoot, and the base of the 
next, may also be seen in Plate I. p. 232. And 
in regard to the disappearance of the pith, even 
the layers of wood, which may be counted on 
this board, give thirty years of age to the lower 
pith, and twenty-nine to the upper one; but 
they are possibly much older, and perhaps half 
a century of pressure from without has neither 
exterminated them nor even reduced the lower 
end of the upper shoot to the same size as the 
upper end of the lower shoot. And I think it 
probable that each is of the exact shape and size 
that nature formed it the first year it grew. 

Again, you have only to examine a newly cut 
tree of any sort, and, if sound, you will see the 
pith, though around it you may count from 50 
to 150 years’ growth. In drying, after the trees 


80 


COURSE OF THE SAF. 


[Part IT. 


Whether the 
pith is the con¬ 
duit of the 
upward sap 
or not. 


have been some time cut, small cracks in the 
direction of the silver grain meet at the pith, 
and prevent its being seen. This accidental 
disappearance of the pith, immediately on the 
death of the tree, is another corroboration of the 
vulgar belief of the death and disappearance of 
the pith during the life of the tree. Every in¬ 
numerable small side-twig of every innumerable 
small branch and root of the most gigantic oak, 
gives origin to a new series of annual cones of 
growth; and until internal death and decay 
supervene, the first annual pith of the original 
seedling communicates with these countless ra¬ 
mifications of branch and root, and by its direct 
and lateral elongations passes, through the tops 
of these innumerable myriads of cones, to every 
side or leading bud, and to near the termination 
of every the finest ramification of the roots. 

Many of the older, and some existing physi¬ 
ologists, maintain that the upward sap is solely 
transmitted by the pith; and the fact I have 
stated seems to favour the opinion that the pith 
may play a prominent part in supplying the 
bud, leaf, and new shoot with upward sap : but 
how could the eleven layers of new wood, which 
sheathed the sides of the ringed branch, have 
been kept moist with sap, except by lateral 


CHAP: II.] 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


81 


transmission from one layer of wood to the 
other, independent of the longitudinal channels 
of the pith ? And that the upward sap is sup¬ 
plied even to the bud by the wood, and not by 
the pith, I think we may argue from the success 
of budding. In this beautiful process, the pith 
of the bud is totally disconnected from any other 
central pith. It is placed on the side-wood, and 
can only receive the upward sap by lateral 
transmission from that side-wood. The same 
may be said of the scion in crown-grafting: its 
pith is quite separated from any central pith. 

Dutrochet has, however, started the idea, that 
the outside of each annual growth of wood is a 
pith, which we have called concentrical piths, 
to distinguish them from the central pith ; and 
it may be argued that it is possible that the 
central pith of a budded bud, or of the scion in 
crown-grafting, may communicate with a con- 
centrical pith, and that the central pith of a 
shoot of a pollard, or of a coppice-wood stool, 
may originate in a concentrical pith. If the 
yearling shoots of pollards or coppice-stools are 
knocked off so as to have a part of the old wood 
on which they grew still attached to them, and 
if the lower ends of these shoots are split down 
the piths into the old wood, the piths will be 


Do the central 
piths of budded 
buds, grafts, 
and of the 
shoots of cop¬ 
pice-wood, 
communicate 
with Dutro- 
chet’s concentri¬ 
cal piths ? 


82 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


[Part II. 


seen each to originate in a point surrounded by 
the old wood, and in conjunction with no other 
central pith. But I should rather say that the 
central pith of each shoot will be seen to origi¬ 
nate in an extra deposit of cheesey pith on the 
last so-called concentrical pith of the stem-wood. 
In the ash, the cheesey point of the central pith 
of the shoot is bright green, and the extra mass 
of cheesey pith of the stem-wood is a yellowish 
white; and I think their junction is very visible. 
This fact, if it is a fact, seems to confirm Du tro¬ 
chees bold suggestion, that the outside of each 
concentrical layer of wood really is a pith. I 
have always doubted this idea, because the sub¬ 
stance of these concentrical piths appears so 
different from that of the central pith; their 
substance appears to be not only wood, but the 
hardest and most durable part of the wood. If 
the ends of fir-trees are left resting on the moist 
ground, these so-called concentrical piths will 
remain after the layers of wood have rotted 
away from between them. 

In favour of Dutrochet’s idea, I have observed 
that, if young Scotch firs are decapitated with a 
saw, the resinous sap may be seen to stand in 
drops on their concentric piths. The stems, 
also, of Scotch firs, when cut down, appear to 


Chap. II.] 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


83 


bleed from them alone; and it is, perhaps, pos¬ 
sible that the longitudinal upward flow of sap 
may be through these piths only, and the lateral 
flow through the silver grain, or medullary rays. 

But whether the central pith of the shoot of 
a pollard or coppice-wood stool originate in the 
wood of the stem, or of the last crop of branches, 
or in the supposed outside concentrical pith of 
one of these, should either or neither of these 
observations be correct, I think the case deserves 
investigation. I also think that such a question 
as this being hitherto unanswered —(might I not 
say, hitherto unasked f )—proves that we have yet 
much to learn in the science, and that there are 
many things under heaven and earth little 
dreamt of in our u physiology .” Unless these 

concentrical piths are piths, the growth of the 
bud, when disconnected from the central pith 
below it, disproves De Candolle’s ingenious sug¬ 
gestion, that the pith is the cotyledon of the bud: 
for the life of the seedling is dependent on its 
cotyledon,—that is, on its seed; and it perishes 
when disconnected from it, even after leaves are 
developed on the plant, and the roots are several 
inches long. But besides this, the cotyledon, or 
seed, is absorbed and vanishes in feeding the 
seedling, but the pith endures for ever. De 
G 2 


84 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


[Part II. 


Candolle states that, in the chestnut, the ash, 
and the vine, “ the pith is interrupted at each 
node, or annual shoot, by a kind of woody par¬ 
tition.” Here, I think, this very great physiolo¬ 
gist makes a very great mistake. It is true 
that, in the ash and horse-chestnut, at the junc¬ 
tion of one year’s shoot with the next, the texture 
of the pith may be described as cheesey , instead 
of spongy . And in the vine, this cheesey pith 
separates the spongy pith, not only at the junc¬ 
tion of each annual shoot with the next, but at 
each knot or side-bud. But there is nothing in 
the least resembling wood in this cheesey pith; 
and when it is scooped out, the pith-channel of 
the vine is of the same size through the knots 
as at any other part, and the pith-channel of the 
horse-chestnut, and ash, is of the same size be¬ 
tween any two shoots as the pith-channel of the 
top of the lower shoot. In these two trees, the 
pith of every shoot and twig is surmounted with 
cheesey pith; so that every bud is placed on 
cheesey pith, and is as much divided from a spongy 
pith by a “ woody partition,” as the pith is in¬ 
terrupted at each node or annual shoot by a 
“ woody partition.” 

If De Candolle’s fact is true, that, in the chest¬ 
nut, the ash, and the vine, “ the pith is inter- 


Chap. II.] 


C0U11SE OF THE SAP. 


85 


rupted at each node or annual shoot by a kind 
of woody partition,” if this fact of De Candolle’s 
is true, what becomes of his theory , that the pith 
is the cotyledon of the bud. 

I do not think it would be an improper de¬ 
scription of the piths of these trees to say that 
their spongy piths begin with, or are seated on, 
cheesey pith, and end in cheesey pith, on which 
the bud is seated. 

The only opinion which I should venture to 
express, in reference to the pith, is the negative 
one, that no one has as yet discovered its offices. 
If this is so, it is not saying much for our know¬ 
ledge of vegetable physiology. 

Were the upward sap supplied to each branch 
by longitudinal channels from the root, peculiar 
to that branch, the pruning or cutting out of 
branches would not benefit the leader and the 
remaining branches. The growth of these is, 
however, increased by judicious and gradual 
pruning, because the channels for the upward 
sap from the root are not peculiar, but general, 
through the whole wood of the stem, to every or 
any part or side of it, where nature, or chance, 
or art , allows it an outlet for growth and elabo¬ 
ration. 

The reason of the extraordinary strength of 


Office of the 
pith not known. 


As the sap- 
channels are 
general, not 
peculiar, prun¬ 
ing increases 
the supply to 
the leader, &c. 


86 


COURSE OF THE SAP. 


[Part II. 


the shoots of pollards and coppice-stools is, that 
they, the minor body, receive the sap transmitted 
by all the old wood, from all the roots, which 
supply was adapted and sufficient for the growth 
of the larger body, — the head lately cut off. 

But it is only by lateral transmission that 
the new crop of shoots can avail themselves of 
the whole sap supplied to the stem or stool by 
the roots. Were the channels of the sap through 
the wood only longitudinal, the new shoots 
would only get the supply of those vessels on 
which they were seated, and they would have no 
freer growth than ordinary shoots. The sap, in 
fact, flows freely in any and every direction 
through the whole wood; and in forest pruning, 
that sap which Nature may be said to have 
intended for an amputated branch, she imme¬ 
diately converts to the extra growth of the leader 
and the remaining branches. Thus, where tall 
clean timber is required, the gradual, I had 
almost said annual , removal of ill-placed or un¬ 
duly large branches does good in two ways; 
for, while undesirable growth is destroyed, an 
annual fillip may be given to the growth which 
is desired to an indefinite period. 


Chap. III.] UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, ETC. 


87 


CHAP. III. 


UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND DOWNWARD 
GROWTH OF THE ROOTS. 


I have postponed the consideration of the up- upward growth 

of the head and 

ward growth of the head in elongation, in order downward 

growth of the 

to take it in coni unction with the downward roots considered 

° together. 

growth of the root in elongation; because I think 
that each may be better understood by contrast 
with the other. This is a deviation from the 
order laid down in an early paragraph, but I 
leave that paragraph unaltered, because I think 
it may give the beginner a clearer idea of which 
growth is supposed to result from the upward 
sap, and which from the downward sap. 

The upward growth of a tree, as compared The upward 

growth of a 

with its downward growth, may be said to tree, or length- 

° ening of its 

resemble the growth of animals by intus-suscep- shoot, is by en- 

° j l largement of 

tion; that is, the growth of the shoots of the 
current year of the leader and branches, is a *"J e a ^ r ° f pro . 
growth or extension of parts already formed by ^“ s ar b * lily 
the upward and outward increase of all those 
parts from within. Besides the growth at their 
ends, all the parts of the shoot of the current 


88 


UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND [Part II. 


The downward 
growth of the 
tree, or length¬ 
ening of the 
root, is simply 
by growth at 
the end of the 
root. 


year, to a certain degree, grow bodily upwards, 
or by what (by comparison with the downward 
growth) may be called intus-susception. I have 
observed this in plants which I have introduced 
through the window-sill, and trained against the 
shutter, by marking the position and upward 
progress of the stalk of each leaf where it joins 
the stem. Duhamel first pointed out this fact. 
With the exception of the parts of the shoot of 
the current year, no other part of a tree makes 
any upward progress. The downward growth 
of a tree, that is, the elongation of the roots, and 
the growth in girthing of every part of the tree, 
may, by comparison, be said to resemble the 
growth of minerals by juxtaposition; that is, 
roots are lengthened only by the deposit of new 
growth at their ends, and they do not progress 
bodily through the earth. I have never re¬ 
marked accurately how this is with plants grown 
in water: but I believe it to be the same as when 
they grow in the earth, and that this mode of 
growth is the result of the organic structure of 
the root, and not of the mechanical difficulty of 
forcing itself through the earth; though, no 
doubt, this peculiar organisation is a contrivance , 
and a very beautiful one, to overcome the 
mechanical difficulty. 


Chap. III.] DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOTS. 


89 


The root has as strong a first tendency down- 
ward as the stem has upward, though it puzzles 
our philosophy to account for either. The first 
downward tendency of the root is, however, 
soon counteracted by circumstances, such as the 
necessity of atmospheric aeration, the goodness 
of upper compared with lower soils, the inter¬ 
vention of rocks, chalk, &c.; and the root is 
found to grow horizontally, or sloping upward 
or downward, according to the inclination of the 
ground. I consider the idea of the tap-root of 
the oak (except as a seedling) to be a vulgar 
error. I have never seen any trace of a root at 
any great distance from the surface of the 
ground ; nor do the stumps of oaks, when grubbed, 
show any symptom of a tap-root more than 
other trees. But the question of the existence 
of tap-roots in large oaks or other timber-trees 
should not be argued as a matter of opinion, 
but proved as a matter of fact. The negative, 
indeed, cannot be proved. I could produce any 
required number of oaks without the tap-root, 
but this would not prove that others were 
without it. Let those who assert the affirmative 
produce one instance. 

The celebrated Duhamel, wishing to protect 
his field from robbery from the roots of a row 


By what agency 
is the head di¬ 
rected upward 
and the root 
downward ? 


90 


UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND [Part II. 


Turgescence, 
and the action 
of light on tur¬ 
gescence, pro¬ 
bably direct the 
growth of the 
head of the 
plant. 


Cellular forma¬ 
tion of the 
bark of green 
shoots. 


of elms, cut a deep ditch between the elms and 
his field. The roots, however, were not to be 
done. They of course followed the surface of 
the ground, whether down, horizontal, or up 
hill, and took the ditch “ in and out clever ” 
into the philosopher’s field. Duhamel thinks 
these were very cunning roots, and that they 
had an instinctive notion of the treat they were 
to have on the other side of the ditch, and grew 
at it. Had the philosopher built a wall in the 
ditch, and then filled it in, he would have beaten 
the roots, on account of their inability to leave 
the surface and get under the wall. 

Were we to add one step to the beautiful 
theories of Knight and Dutrochet respecting the 
growth of adhesive plants, and the tendrils of 
climbing plants, from the light, we might attri¬ 
bute the upright growth of the stem and the 
aberration of its branches from the perpendicular 
to the mere swelling (turgescence) of the cellular 
tissue of the new green shoot, and to the action 
of light on the swelling. 

It is asserted, on microscopic observation, 
that the bark of all new green shoots is entirely 
composed of two layers of cellular tissue. The 
cells of the outside layer of tissue decrease in 
size from within outwards; the cells of the inside 


Chai>. TIL] DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOTS. 


91 


layer decrease in size from without inwards. 
Thus the largest cells of each layer are next one 
another, or in the middle of the bark, and the 
smallest cells are on the two sides; that is, the 
outside and the inside of the bark. Owing to 
this formation, swelling would stretch a slip of 
bark perfectly straight, since each layer of tissue 
would tend to curve itself outward. But in 
plants which grow towards the light the inside 
layer of tissue is the thickest, and therefore the 
most powerful in its action ; consequently swelling 
would bend a slip of such bark inwards or 
towards its shoot, and such a shoot would be 
held up by the inward pressure of its bark all 
round it, as a wall may be propped from both 
sides. But in the bark of plants, or parts of 
plants, which grow from the light, such as ivy, 
the tendrils of climbing plants, &c., the outside 
layer of tissue is the strongest; and the tops of 
the shoots of such plants tend to stand upright 
by the pulling outward of their bark from all 
sides, like the mast of a ship. But light, by 
increasing the giving off of water (transpiration), 
decreases swelling; and when it falls unequall] 
on plants, the forces on the illumined side wil 
be weakened, and the shoot, according to the 
formation of its cellular tissue, will be turned 


How turges- 
cence acts on 
the cellular for¬ 
mation. 


How light acts 
on this tur- 
ge see nee. 


92 


UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND [Part II. 


either towards or from the light. Thus ivy, or 
the tendrils of climbing plants, are turned from 
the light towards any opaque body, while the 
generality of plants are turned from the opaque 
body toward the light. The whole of a plant 
kept in a room will grow sideways towards the 
window. The same plant placed where the light 
comes from above will immediately turn straight 
up. But though this principle is not so striking 
out of doors, it is perpetual and universal. 

As the light falls equally on the leader of a 
tree, it goes up straight. In proportion as the 
leader intercepts the light from above, the 
branches grow towards the light at the sides; 
and if one outstrips its neighbours, the light 
from above turns its end up. If the lower tier 
of branches outgrows the tier above it, in turn¬ 
ing up, it will take its neighbour with it. That 
tier will turn the tier above; and so in succes¬ 
sion all the branches will grow upward. This 
growth is often seen in beech-trees. 

It is this principle which prevents the boughs 
of a tree from growing against one another. 
In proportion to their opacity they grow one 
from the other. 

Notwithstanding the original downward ver¬ 
tical determination of the root, and upward 


Chap. III.] DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOTS. 


93 


vertical determination of the stem, the annual 
vertical growth in elongation of a tree, either 
upward or downward, is nothing in comparison 
with the growth of it, which forms angles with 
a vertical line: that is, out of all the numerous 
points of elongation of the head of a tree, there 
is but one which can go vertically upward in 
continuation of the line of the stem; and out of 
all the numerous points of elongation of the 
root, there is but one which can go vertically 
downward in continuation of the line of the 
stem; and I believe that one ceases to do so 
very soon. 

If the leader of a tree is killed, the light 
falling equally from above on many buds, a 
multiplicity of leaders may be developed; though 
if one grows more vigorously than the others, 
by overshadowing them from above with its own 
side-growth, it will force them to grow sideways 
to the light, and the tree will again become 
single-leadered. Without pruning, a tree may 
become round-headed from the merest accident; 
for instance, an insect, or a bird, or the wind 
destroying the top bud. A tree on the side 
of a steep hill may be seen to grow from the 
opaque side above it, and, after it has reached a 
certain height, to curve back again. 


94 


UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND [.Part II. 


Dutroche", 
Knight, Davy, 
&e., think that 
gravity directs 
the growth both 
of the head and 
the roots of 
trees. Experi¬ 
ments in proof. 


So far light would appear to be the principal 
agent in directing the growth of the heads 
of plants. Yet the majority of physiologists 
attribute the direction of the growth both of the 
head and of the roots of plants to gravity. 
Among the number are Dutrochet, Knight, and 
Sir Humphrey Davy, men for capacity and 
clearness of intellect matchless among physi¬ 
ologists. I will therefore go at length into two 
experiments of Dutrochet and Knight, the con¬ 
clusions drawn from which in favour of gravity 
have been enforced by Sir Humphrey Davy. 
Dutrochet found that if beans, in a state of ger¬ 
mination, were planted in holes through the 
bottom of a box filled with earth, the stems 
grew upward from the light into the earth, and 
the roots downward towards the light into the 
air; and the plants perished when they ceased 
to derive nutriment from their seeds. 

Early in March* 1844, I made experiments 
similar to those of Dutrochet, with results which, 
if at first they resembled, finally differed very 
widely from, those elicited by this eminent and 
most acute physiologist. And in considering 
these results, I think I shall be able to explain 
why the beans in Dutrochet’s experiment died. 
I placed various seeds on the surface of large 


Chap. III.] DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOTS. 


95 


flower-pots full of earth, turned them over on 
wire-work, and hung the inverted pots from the 
wood-work at the upper part of my window, so 
as to have the lower sides of the seeds exposed 
to light and air from below, and their upper 
sides in contact with the moist earth above them. 
The immediate results showed a most remarkable 
determination of the first or tap-roots down¬ 
ward, and of the gemmules or stems upward. 
In all the experiments the first or tap-roots of 
all the seeds, without a single exception, came 
straight down into the air, and ceased to grow 
when the ends in the air were from a quarter of 
an inch to an inch long. None ever turned up 
again. The plants, however, threw out branch- 
roots from their necks, fixed them upward in 
the earth, and continued to grow. Those parts 
of the roots which remained alive exposed to air 
and light for six weeks and upwards turned 
green, as did the cotyledons themselves; that is> 
the two divisions of the seed. 

At the same time, I took some horse-chestnut 
seeds, whose first or tap-roots had already begun 
to grow, and placed them so that these tap-roots 
pointed upward into the earth in the inverted 
flower-pot, and the seeds touched the wire below. 
In all the cases the roots immediately turned 


96 


UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND [Part II. 


straight down and came through the wire into 
the air. The gemmules or heads of five also 
came down, and, on cutting away the wire, all 
five grew horizontally to the light at the window, 
and then grew diagonally upward and to the 
light. The gemmules or heads of the rest grew 
upward through about 8J inches of earth, were 
drawn by the light with unerring precision 
through the hole of the flower-pot, and one 
through an accidental hole of about a quarter of 
an inch in diameter. They then turned short 
towards the light at the window. 

In November, on taking the flower-pot off, 
I found that branch-roots had passed over the 
top of the ball of earth, 8^- in, high. I replaced 
the flower-pot with a chimney-pot 2 ft. 7 in. 
high, and filled it with earth, leaving only the 
five plants whose heads had come out below. 
I placed the experiment out of doors supported 
from below. The five plants grew in 1845. In 
the spring of 1846 I cut off all except one plant, 
and placed a second chimney-pot above the first 
one. 

In March, 1850, I placed a third chimney-pot 
on the second, making the column of earth 7 ft. 
5 in. in height. The roots had already reached 
the top of the second chimney-pot, about 5 ft. in 


Chap. III.] DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOT. 


97 


vertical height; and in June, 1850, the plant 
itself was 7 ft. 8 in. high. In the autumn of 
1851 the roots were near the top of the third 
chimney-pot, having grown vertically upward 
about 7 ft. The plant itself was within an inch 
of 9 ft. In the spring of 1852, I raised the 
column of earth to 8 ft. 1 in., and in the summer 
the plant was 9 ft. 8 in. high. 

In other similar experiments the soft gem- 
mules, or stems, of garden beans and scarlet- 
runners forced themselves upward through about 
10^- in. of earth, came through the holes of the 
flower-pot, and grew towards the light till the 
runners required training. 

Hence it would appear that, while in the earth, 
the first gemmules have a straight upward 
tendency independent of light. If we attribute 
this straightness to turgescence, I do not see 
why the growth should be in a straight line up 
more than down , or in any other direction. But 
the gemmule seems beautifully endowed with an 
internal structure differing from that of every 
other part of the plant, by which, when buried 
too deeply, it takes the most direct line to the 
atmosphere in which it is formed to flourish: 
though it would puzzle our philosophy to say 
the agent by which this growth is directed, as 

H 


Upward growth 
of first gem- 
mule when de¬ 
prived of light. 


98 


UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND [Part II. 


Crane-neck 
growth of first 
gemmule, to 
shield it while 
forced through 
the earth. 


Roots grow 
through the 
earth with very 
little force. 


much as to name the agent which directs the 
growth of the root, tap or branch. 

When the gemmules reach the air the agent 
appears to be light. At least, when the gem- 
mules reach the air this straight upward ten¬ 
dency is immediately overcome by light. These 
stems, after having forced themselves straight up¬ 
wards through eight or ten inches of earth, were 
drawn away from the spot where each emerged 
from the earth by light through the holes at the 
centre of the flower-pot. The plants were still 
crane-necked; that is, their heads were doubled 
on their stems as they came out of the seeds: 
and thus, while the stem of a plant, whose seed 
has two divisions or cotyledons, is forcing its 
way upward, its head is pointed downward, and 
the leaves are drawn through the earth with the 
grain . But for the contrivance of the crane- 
neck, the leaflets, owing to their branching and 
expending one from the other, must be broken 
and torn to pieces by the great force necessary 
to thrust them and the stems bodily through the 
earth. This is a very beautiful provision. The 
roots, on the other hand, appear to grow in 
length through the earth, with very little, if 
any, pressure at all. This may possibly be in 
part owing to their elongating only at their 


Chap III.] DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOT. 


99 


ends, and to their not being thrust bodily- 
through the earth. I have laid horse-chestnuts 
on the surface of a box of earth, and, by arching 
them over with layers of damp flannel which 
did not touch them, they grew, and the tap¬ 
roots struck downward into the earth and fixed 
themselves; though they had no foreign fulcrum 
to press from, except the weight of the seed, which 
was not perpendicularly above them. Can there 
be anything glutinous about the silver ends of 
roots, which enables them to adhere to the earth 
while their new growth is protruded through it ? 
And I may ask here, if roots have spongioles or 
small sponges at their ends, are we to believe 
that these sponges are locomotive or stationary? 
Are we to believe that these delicate organs are 
thrust forward through the hard ground ? Or, 
are we to suppose that the perpetual new growth 
of root is perpetual new sponge, as its preceding 
sponge is converted into root ? 

As the stems of the plants grew, I heightened 
the moist canopy, and let in light only by one 
opening. All the stems grew towards that 
opening : and as often as the opening was, 
changed from one end of the canopy to the 
other, the direction of the stems was changed; 

H 2 


100 


UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND [Part II. 


that is, besides the new growth towards the 
light, the parts of the stems which were already 
formed were bent towards the light. Three or 
four hours were sufficient to effect this change 
in these tender, drawn stems. 

Observing in the various experiments that 
several grass-seeds grew downward with their 
heads towards the light, and as plants with 
single-divisioned seeds grow with their heads 
single and not with the crane-neck, 1 imagined 
that they had not perhaps the same power of 
forcing themselves through the earth which 
plants, whose seeds have two divisions, have. 
I therefore tried wheat, barley, and oats, which, 
as well as the grasses, are monocotyledonous; 
that is, have a single or undivided seed. A 
great quantity of root was first shown down¬ 
ward, and ceased to grow. The heads then 
came down and grew towards the light. The 
roots fixed themselves upward and the plants 
grew. When the heads of any engaged them¬ 
selves against the earth, the stems bowed down¬ 
ward, and sometimes bent short before the heads 
were disengaged. 

In the course of three weeks three plants of 
wheat forced their heads through about in. 
of earth, and showed themselves at the hole of 


Chap. III.] DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOT. 


101 


the flower-pot. They, however, ceased to grow, 
being possibly beaten down by the watering. 

Probably one reason which enables these deli¬ 
cate organisations to dispense with the crane- 
neck in thrusting themselves through the hard 
earth is, that they are entirely single-leadered, 
instead of having leaflets branching sideways 
like the gemmules of double-seeded plantules. 
But, besides this, the single, tender blade is 
rolled round on itself, and enveloped in a coarse, 
thick, white outer coating, pointed at the top. 
The instant the point of this tough sheath clears 
the earth, it opens and emits the green blade 
unscathed into the air. Here is again a beau¬ 
tiful contrivance . The barley and oats growing 
from below, ripened their seed, which grew when 
sowed. 

1 have not known an instance of a garden 
bean getting the head of its first gemmule below 
the wire; though, when the head was engaged 
above, the stalk would bow down, and in this 
state the branch-roots fixed themselves, and the 
plant grew, and threw out new shoots from the 
knots and from the neck, which grew towards 
the light: and I think that the organisation of 
the first gemmule of the garden bean, and, per¬ 
haps, the first gemmule of all plants, is different 


Provision to 
enable the gem¬ 
mule of a single- 
seeded plant to 
thrust itself 
through the 
earth. 


Probable dis¬ 
tinct organisa¬ 
tion of first 
gemmule. 


102 


UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND [Part II. 


from the organisation of all other parts of plants. 
I think that the reason of the death of the beans 
in Dutrochet’s beautiful experiment was, that 
their necks and tap-roots were too far detached 
from the earth to allow them to throw out 
branch-roots; and that, had they thrown out 
branch-roots, they would also have thrown out 
branch-stems . 

If any of the scarlet-runners engaged their 
heads so as to be unable to descend, they broke 
out, like the beans, from the necks. But the 
heads of the gemmules of many scarlet-runners 
came down, grew eight or ten inches horizon¬ 
tally across the wires to the light, and then up 
the side of the pot diagonally to the light, till 
they required support as usual. Some grew 
across the wires without touching them. One 
pressed constantly against the wires, and seemed 
only compelled to its course by the mechanical 
resistance from above. I placed a string for 
each plant to climb, and, as they ascended, I let 
the flower-pot down, so that, at last, it touched 
the floor of the room, and the plants the ceiling. 
They circle round their support against the sun, 
as it is called; that is, the course of their growth 
and of their sap in the half-circle on the south 
side of their supports is from west to east, and in 
the half-circle on the north side of their supports 


Chap. III.] DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOT. 


103 


from east to west : in other words, they make 
the half-circle which is farthest from the ob¬ 
server from right to left; and the half-circle 
which is nearest to the observer from left to 
right. 

Many plants do the same; and many others 
(as the hop) exactly the reverse. Nothing can 
alter these determinations of growth in these 
plants, which are, possibly, in all cases, owing 
to the action of the same external agent, light, 
on different internal cellular organisation. 

Mechanically , I have forced the heads of plants 
to grow downward, by placing the seeds and 
roots of beans in sponges, and confining their 
heads in glass tubes. I have mechanically 
forced the first or tap-roots of plants to grow 
upward by placing horse-chestnuts in earth, or 
half-covered with water, and confining their tap¬ 
roots in glass tubes. Both the stems and the 
roots will, however, make every attempt to 
double back : and in doing so, I have known 
the root grow spirally up the narrow tube like a 
corkscrew; and having, at last (from becoming 
thin), turned, grow straight down through the 
screw. The tube being then quite filled up, the 
side-fibres of the upper end of the root grew 
straight up in a bunch. In plants which have 

H 4 


104 


UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND [Part II. 


overgrown their pots, the roots may be seen to 
grow straight up the side of the ball of earth, 
and in all directions around it, owing to the 
mechanical confinement of the pot. But I do 
not think that the roots ever return through 
the ball of earth towards the plant. The want 
of light may probably be considered a sufficient 
reason for branches never returning towards the 
stem. I think it more difficult to find a reason 
for this perpetually centrifugal (or, if nova rerum 
nomina be allowed, ipsifugal ) determination of 
the root. 

strong down- In all the cases in all these experiments the 

ward determi¬ 
nation of tap- plants grew permanently, and independently of 

bie distinct or- their seeds. In all the cases where the gem- 

ganisation of it. ° 

mules or stems came down into the air, they 
grew across the wires to the light at the win¬ 
dow. None came from under the flower-pot on 
the sides towards the room, even though they 
emerged from the earth close to those sides. 
And in all cases, whether the gemmule grew 
upward through the earth, or downward into 
the air, the first or tap-root showed itself from 
above below, and never turned upward. But 
the branch-roots fixed themselves, and grew 
from below upward ; and I therefore imagine 
that there must be something perfectly distinct 


Chap. III.] DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOT. 


105 


in the nature or cellular organisation of the 
original first or tap-root of seedlings, as com¬ 
pared with that of their branch-roots : though 
I cannot guess by what agent the growth of the 
differing structure of the tap and branch-root is 
to be directed in their differing course, any more 
than I can guess the agent which determines the 
upward growth of the first gemmule of a seed¬ 
ling while it is in the earth, and before it reaches 
the light. 

Still farther to test this idea, which these 
experiments gave me, — that first or tap-roots 
alone would appear below, and that no branch- 
roots would do so,—in March, 1846, I placed 
cuttings of gooseberry and currant in a pot of 
earth inverted on wire, and suspended in the 
air. The cuttings struck, and no roots appeared 
below; the cause being, as I conceive, that, as 
there were no seedling-roots, so there were no 
tap-roots. In July I destroyed all the cuttings 
except one currant, placed the experiment on a 
support from below, and removed the flower-pot. 
There were a great many roots growing in all 
directions round and over the outside of the ball 
of earth. I replaced the flower-pot with a large 
chimney-pot, which I filled with earth. In 1847 
the main shoot of the currant slip was 4 ft. 1 in. 


106 


UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND [Part II. 


in height. In March, 1848, I placed a second 
chimney-pot on the first; and the plant grows 
and bears fruit now, 1853. 

From the results of these experiments, I think 
it probable that the organisation of the first 
gemmule of a plant is peculiar; and I have not 
a doubt that the first radicle or tap-root of the 
seedling has a different cellular structure from 
that of the branch or side-roots. If these sup¬ 
positions are facts, they are very interesting, as 
showing most clearly and beautifully the hand 
and design of the Creator. The same physical 
causes, — that is, moisture and turgescence, 
drought and exhaustion, heat, cold, light, atmo¬ 
spheric aeration, &c.,—acting on different cellular 
organisations, unerringly trace out to each part 
of the plant the course which it is ordained to 
pursue. A seed is deeply buried in the autumnal 
hoard of some animal; its first gemmule is 
endowed with an organisation which sends it 
directly upward. It no sooner reaches the 
atmosphere than its growth turns wherever it 
can find light, which is, in fact, generally wher¬ 
ever it can find room. The seed falls on the 
surface of the earth, a first root is struck out, 
whose vertical determination downward nothing 
can pervert ; though lighter and softer than the 


Chap. ILL] DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOT. 


107 


earth, it pierces through the earth from above, 
even without the aid of a foreign fulcrum to 
press against. When this perpendicular descensus 
(as the whole root has been, perhaps improperly, 
called) has, by boring, buried itself, branch-roots 
strike out, which grow horizontally or vertically 
upward or downward, or at any intermediate 
angle, according to the level of the ground, at 
the exact proper distance from the atmosphere 
which the particular constitution of each plant 
requires. Thus, at every turn do we find how 
minutely perfect in detail is the work of that 
Almighty hand which, in the gross, swings the 
countless orbs of the firmamental universe 
through infinite space! 

I believe myself, then, that the tap-root is 
merely a provision of the Creator for this first 
fixing of the seed; that it is only proper to seed¬ 
lings, and that it ceases to be continued after 
the first year’s growth. Will no clever experi¬ 
menter invent a mode of putting this question 
to nature ? 

I do not mean but what a tap -root might, 
under peculiar circumstances, be continued ad 
libitum by a main root. But the circumstances 
must be very peculiar. For instance, were a 
monster manufactory chimney filled with good 


Tap-root only 
proper to seed¬ 
lings, and a 
contrivance for 
fixing them. 


108 


UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND [Part II. 


soil, and any tree planted at the top, you pos¬ 
sibly might necessitate the growth of a main root 
of a hundred feet long vertically downward; and 
probably, were a tree planted below, a main root 
of the same length might be grown vertically 
upward: though, after the first year’s growth, 
not one single inch might have the organisation 
proper to tap-roots. On the other hand, I think 
that, were a tree planted on a draw-well filled 
with soil, the vertical root would soon cease 
on account of the want of atmospheric influence. 
Were some violent tap-rootist to try this experi¬ 
ment, his descendants might supply the dock¬ 
yards with a pctf-oak, which, if drawn by the 
hydraulic press, and its radical or tartarean 
growth added to its vertical or aethereal growth, 
would double its proper measurement. Indeed, 
I marvel why tap-rootists do not pluck all their 
oaks like radishes or carrots, instead of, according 
to their doctrine, cutting them exactly in twain 
and leaving their lower halves to rot in the 
earth. But let any one in any soil dig a trench 
six feet deep close round an oak; he will soon 
give up the idea of a tap-root. 

Magnis componere parva , in the beginning of 
April, 1846, I planted a horse-chestnut on a 
column of earth about 7 ft. high, formed by 


Chap. III.] DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOT. 


109 


placing three chimney-pots one on the other. 
In the autumns of 1850, 1851, 1852, and 1853, 
I knocked off each year about a foot of the upper 
part of the chimney-pots, and denuded the roots 
to that extent: they are, however, branching. 
The ends of the branches, on reaching the sides, 
had apparently died, and new shoots from them 
had struck downward. There was not the least 
circular growth round the sides, as with plants 
in flower-pots; possibly, because the chimney¬ 
pots were encrusted with soot. Two of the 
upper roots were entirely cleared from the earth 
in 1850. The woody parts of them are still 
alive (1853), though it would puzzle us to say 
whence their wood is supplied with sap: I sup¬ 
pose, from the stem; if so, the upward sap, in 
this case, is a downward sap. 

The “herbaceous envelope” of these roots 
(that is, the surface of the bark immediately 
below the outer bark) is perfectly green where 
they are exposed to light and air, and perfectly 
white from the very spot where the earth pro¬ 
tects them from the light and air. When de¬ 
nuded, the herbaceous envelope begins to turn 
green in about a fortnight.* 

* I have omitted to observe whether the under bark of 
the old roots of plants grown in water is green or white ; if 


UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND [Part II. 

But an admirable experiment of Knight’s 
furnishes the main fact from which it has been 
asserted that both the ascent of the stem and 
the descent of the root should be referred to 
gravity. When he subjected beans to a strong 
centrifugal force by making their seeds grow 
on the rims of wheels whirled rapidly by water, 
their roots grew from the centres of the wheels, 
and their stems towards the centres of the wheels. 
When the wheel was vertical, the growth of the 
plants was precisely as stated. When the wheel 
was horizontal, the growth of the plants was 
nearly horizontal; but the stems inclined up¬ 
ward and the roots downward in an inverse 
ratio as the degree of centrifugal force. Richard 
tells us that this experiment was repeated by 
Dutrochet, and the only difference was, that, in 
the case of the horizontal wheel, “ the inclination 
was much greater, and the radicles and gem- 
mules had become almost horizontal.” This last 
witness appears to me to prove too much: for, 
granting the effects of gravity on the growth of 
plants to cease directly as the centrifugal force 
applied, the centrifugal force applied to each 
part of the plants in this experiment would 

it is green, the colour must be owing to the action of light, 
independently of atmospheric air. 


Chai>. III.] DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOT. 


Ill 


diminish directly as the nearness of each part 
to the centre of the wheel. Therefore, gravity 
would again resume its powers over each part 
directly as the centrifugal force diminished, and 
thus should elevate the heads of the plants on 
the horizontal wheel. This observation will 
hold good, whatever may have been the degree 
of centrifugal force applied. I have not, indeed, 
any idea of the degree which actually was ap¬ 
plied ; and it is needless to mention the number 
of revolutions of the wheels in a given time, 
since their diameters are not given in either of 
the two accounts which I have seen of this most 
beautiful experiment; therefore, no correct no¬ 
tion can be formed of the degree of centrifugal 
force to which each part of the plants was sub¬ 
jected. But, as I have said, in any case the 
degree of that force must have varied in every 
part of the plants; that is, it must have de¬ 
creased on the stems, and increased on the roots, 
directly as their growth ; and when the heads of 
the stems had worked up the stream of centri¬ 
fugal force to the centre of the wheel, “ where 
they soon met,” all action of the centrifugal 
force must have ceased on them; and had they 
not turned upward at right angles to the spokes 
of the horizontal wheel, they would have gone 


11.2 


UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND [Part II. 


That the growth 
of the head and 
root is directed 
by gravity dis¬ 
puted. 


headlong down the contrary current of centri¬ 
fugal force. 

Sir Humphrey Davy remarks on this expe¬ 
riment :— 1u These facts afford a rational solution 
of this curious problem, respecting which dif¬ 
ferent philosophers have given such different 
opinions: some referring it to the nature of the 
sap, as De la Hire; others, as Darwin, to the 
living powers of the plant, and the stimulus of 
air upon the leaves, and of moisture upon the 
roots. The effect is now shown to be connected 
with mechanical causes ; and there seems no 
other power in nature to which it can with pro¬ 
priety be referred but gravity, which acts uni¬ 
versally, and which must tend to dispose the 
parts to take a uniform direction.” 

I honour and envy the mind which, like Mr. 
Knight’s, could foresee the probability of the 
marvellous result of this beautiful experiment; 
and, if it is allowable at all jurare in verba 
magistri , where is the master whose word we 
would take sooner than Sir Humphrey’s ? But 
surely our great philosopher is here too easily 
satisfied, at least if he means (as I understand 
him) that the direction of the growth of plants 
in general is caused by gravity. I cannot think, 
myself, that the direction of any of their growth 


Chap. III.] DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOT. 


113 


is caused by it. But, on the contrary, as 
vegetable growth is in opposition to gravity, so 
I think it is caused by one of the great anta¬ 
gonist powers to the attraction of gravity and 
cohesion, — namely, turgescence, or expansion. 

This beautiful experiment, however, relates 
only to the vertical growth of plants upward and 
downward; and has no reference whatever to 
the growth of either head or root horizontally, 
or at any angle with the horizontal line, either 
upward or downward. Indeed, if the experi¬ 
ment proves any thing, it proves that all vege¬ 
table growth must be vertical, either upward or 
downward. The experiment, too, is made on 
the tap-root and first gemmule of the seedling, 
the cellular structure of which I believe in each 
case to differ from that of all other parts of 
plants. 

But looking on the experiment simply as re¬ 
garding the vertical growth of the tap-root and 
gemmule of the seedling, or of any vertical 
growth of a plant, if we are to believe that this 
vertical growth is caused by gravity, it would be 
a case of credo quia impossible. For to say 
that the sap or the new shoot—that either of 
these, the heavier, should be caused to ascend 
through the air, the lighter, by its weight, is as 
I 


114 


UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND [Part II. 


flat a contradiction in terms as to say that light 
is caused by darkness. 

It is, indeed, the part of a thorough philo¬ 
sopher not to wonder at any thing. Those who 
have no pretence to that character must wonder 
at every thing ; and, among others, at the. at¬ 
tractive force of gravity. Why a stone when 
dropped from the hand in the air should fall to¬ 
wards the centre of the earth is, of itself, a most 
unaccountably marvellous fact. But this is in 
unison with our universal, every-day experience; 
and the philosophic may not, and the unphilo- 
sophic do not, wonder at it. But how infinitely 
more unaccountably marvellous would it be if, 
owing to the same force,—gravity, one half of 
the stone were to fall towards the centre of the 
earth, and the other half were to fly off in the 
exactly opposite direction ; that is, towards the 
zenith! As this would be contrary to our uni¬ 
versal, every-day experience, possibly the phi¬ 
losophic, certainly the unphilosophic, would 
wonder at it. Yet if we refer the direction 
of the vertical growth of plants to gravity, this 
is precisely what does take place: namely, the 
first start of the root is with the attraction of 
gravity towards the centre of the earth ; the 
first start of the stem is against it, in the exactly 


Chap. III.] DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOT. 

opposite direction,—that is, towards the zenith. 
And why the root should obey, and the stem 
disobey, the otherwise universal law of gravity, 
would still puzzle our philosophy, as I said 
before. 

But difficult as it would be to swallow the 
*fact , that gravity should cause part of a plant to 
go with it and part against it, this is only half 
of what we have to swallow. For, actually, the 
whole vertical growth of plants is against gra¬ 
vity; and to say that gravity causes that growth 
against itself, is as contradictory as to say that 
darkness causes light. But, in fact, gravity acts 
as much against the descent of the root in earth , 
as against the ascent of the stem in air. Gra¬ 
vity is a fine word, and means weight. Attrac¬ 
tion of gravitation is a fine term, and means 
the attraction of weight: and, loosely speaking, 
it may be said, that within this world the sole 
effect of gravity or weight is, that the heaviest 
things have a tendency to get lowest; that is, 
that (though we know not how or why) they 
are the most drawn towards the centre of the 
earth, and, consequently, that the lightest things 
have a tendency to get highest, — that is, that, 
where there is perfect facility of movement in all 
directions, as in fluids, the lightest things are 


UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND [Part II. 

'pressed farthest from the centre of the earth. 
But this tendency is constantly interfered with. 
If stones are put in a vessel half full of water, 
they, the heavier, are drawn by gravity,' or 
weight, to the bottom, and they press the liquid 
water, the lighter, to the top of the vessel: and 
(though it is a false expression) the water may 
be said to ascend by gravity, as flame, or sparks, 
or smoke,—that is, heated air,— the lighter, may 
be said to ascend by gravity through the atmo¬ 
spheric air, the heavier. 

But if stones are placed on the surface of the 
solid earth, though they are the heavier, gravity, 
or weight, has not the power to draw them 
through it. How, then, is gravity, or weight, 
which has not the power to draw a stone, the 
heavier solid, through the earth, the lighter 
solid,—how is it to have the power to draw a 
root, the lighter solid, through the earth, the 
heavier solid ? 

There would, indeed, be nothing wonderful in 
the root, the heavier, descending by gravity, or 
weight, through the fluid air, the lighter. But 
that the root, the lighter, should descend by 
gravity, or weight, through the earth, the hea¬ 
vier, is as inexplicable and as contradictory as 
that the stem, the heavier, should ascend by 
gravity, or weight, through the air, the lighter. 


Chap. III.] DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOT. 

That light, not gravity, is the main conductor 
of the growth of the heads of plants is probable 
from the fact that, where trees stand close to¬ 
gether, their chief growth is upwards, and their 
side-branches die; and as long as their stems 
are thus in the shade, they show no disposition 
to shoot out sideways again. But the moment 
such an over-thick wood is over-thinned, the 
stems burst out sideways to the light which is 
admitted. And he who is most wedded to the 
extraordinary paradox, that the leader owes 
its vertical direction to gravity, will, I think, 
scarcely assert that the same cause produces the 
horizontal growth of the branch. Paradoxical 
as it may sound, if a side-branch of a tree de¬ 
scends from a height till it touches the ground, 
its growth all the time it is descending is ra¬ 
ther upward than downward ; that is, the new 
growth, or shoot, at the end of such a bough is 
generally slightly curved upwards by the action 
of light on the cellular structure of its upper 
side. Gravity, indeed, draws the whole branch 
down bodily, for light has no power to act 
through the dead bark; but light will so draw 
the new end up against gravity, that, when the 
branch comes to the ground, it will rest on a 
curved elbow, not on its end. This .fight be- 


118 


UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND [Part II. 


General growth 
of head towards 
light; general, 
growth of root 
to wherever it 
can find good 
soil. 


tween gravity and light is the origin of very 
beautiful growth in many trees. 

Were I to lay down a general rule about the 
direction of the growth of the greater part of 
plants, it would be, that the growth above is in 
whatever direction it can find light; and that 
the growth below is in whatever direction it can 
find the best soil. I except the growth of the 
first tap-root of the seedling, and of its first 
gemmule, as long as this is below the earth, and 
consequently not exposed to light. 

The fact shown us by Knight’s most beautiful 
experiment, much as it says, says no more in 
favour of gravity, or weight, as the director of 
the growth of plants, than the fact which we see 
every day, that plants are drawn by light, says 
in favour of light. 

‘‘Fools will rush in where angels fear to tread 

and we may have plenty of them to settle these 
questions for us nicely. But can the philo¬ 
sophic, or the unphilosophic, consider this first 
principle in physiology as settled, any more than 
any other first principle of it ? The whole is 
doubt and darkness. 

We are ignorant of how the sap is first im¬ 
bibed. We are ignorant of what causes it to 


Chap. III.J DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOT. 


119 


ascend. We are ignorant of where, or how, it is 
elaborated. We are ignorant of the office of the 
leaf. We are ignorant of the office of the pith. 
We are ignorant of what causes the stem to 
grow vertically upward. We are ignorant of 
what causes the branch to grow horizontally, or 
at any angle with the horizon, upward or down¬ 
ward. We are ignorant of what causes the tap¬ 
root to grow vertically downward. And we are 
ignorant of what causes the branch-root to grow 
horizontally, or at any angle with the horizon, 
upward or downward; or of what causes the 
branch-root to grow vertically upward. If the 
vertical upward growth of a root is doubted, I 
can show it now going on to any one who de¬ 
sires to see it. I have myself put the question 
to Nature, and I have her autograph answer to it 
in my possession. In this case of roots growing 
upward, the descensus becomes an ascensus . 
What is called the ascending sap in the wood of 
the root, becomes a descending sap ; and what is 
called the descending sap in the bark of the root, 
becomes an ascending sap.- AYith submission to 
Sir Humphrey Davy, what has gravity to do 
with all this ? 

That this our nineteenth century has infi¬ 
nitely more knowledge of vegetable physiology 

i 4 


120 


UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND [Pakt II. 


A new layer of 
bark is formed 
every year. 


than any foregoing age, I have not a doubt. 
But if any one imagines that we have arrived at 
a competent knowledge of the science, when a 
dozen questions of such vital importance as 
these are open, I think he only shows that he is 
ignorant of the depth of our ignorance. 

A new innermost layer of bark (the new cor¬ 
tical layer) is also formed each year, from the 
descending sap, corresponding with the increased 
girthing of the tree. The old or outward layers 
are stretched outwards, crack, and form the 
rough bark seen on old trunks. The yearling 
shoot has but one layer of bark, besides the 
outer cuticle, the two-year-old shoot two, and 
so on; and each shoot may be said to have as 
many layers of bark, as well as as many layers 
of wood, as it is years old. But with regard to 
the layers of bark, besides the sloughing off, the 
circumference of the earlier layers would be very 
disproportioned to that of the later ones. If the 
circumference of the bark of the seedling oak 
were half an inch, it would make a poor show 
when rent and divided over the outer circum¬ 
ference of a full-grown tree, supposing it to have 
existed. This growth of the bark may also be 
considered as partaking of the principle of the 
growth by j uxta-position, since the annual new 


Chap. III.] DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOT. 


121 


layer is a distinct coating or deposit of new 
growth on the inside of the bark, and not a 
growth or increase of parts already formed. It 
is from the downward sap, since in branches 
which are rung it ceases to be deposited below 
the rings, but is continued annually above the 
rings. 

De Candolle makes a distinction between the 
outer skin or covering of the leaf and annual 
shoot and that of all other parts of the tree. 
He calls the outer covering of the leaf and 
annual shoot the cuticle , and that of the rest of 
the tree the epidermis . There is certainly a dif¬ 
ference between living skin and bark and dead 
skin and bark, and it might be as well if they 
had different names; but if we give the name of 
cuticle to the outer covering of the living bark, 
it will be found, with its green under layer of 
parenchyma ,—the green, porous, spongy layer, 
which is also called the “ herbaceous envelope,’’— 
to extend over a much larger space of our forest- 
trees than De Candolle assigns to it. There is 
nothing in which even the same sort of trees 
differ more than in this respect. According to 
growth, soil, exposure, &c., the cuticle exists to 
a very indefinite period; and it would be hard 
to say where cuticle ceased and epidermis began. 


122 


UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND [Part II. 


Living external bark, with a green under layer, 
may be found on oak, ash, beech, Spanish and 
horse-chesnut, sycamore, poplar, &c., &c., on 
parts varying from twenty to fifty years in age. 
And in the plane-tree, whose bark scales off as 
it dies, and thus admits light and air to the 
under layer, or herbaceous envelope, this may 
always be found green on any part of the stem 
or branches. On roots also of from twenty to 
fifty years in age may be found a fine silvery 
cuticle which tears off like paper; though in 
roots, under ordinary circumstances, the under 
layer, or herbaceous envelope, is white, not 
green. 

De Candolle states it as a distinctive charac¬ 
teristic of roots, as compared with the stem, that 
u they do not become green even when they are 
exposed to the air and light/’ And this opinion 
is universally held by physiologists; but it is an 
error. De Candolle, in proof of the opinion, 
states that the roots of hyacinths grown in 
transparent glasses do not turn green. This is 
true of them, and also of the silver ends of 
woody roots; but it must be recollected that to 
neither of these can the air be admitted when 
they grow in water, or light when they grow in 
earth. It is however, I believe, true of these 


Chap. III.] DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOT. 


123 


unripe ends of roots, under any circumstances. 
But when part of a woody root is accidentally 
exposed by the wearing away of a bank, &c., 
the layer below the outer cuticle will be found 
green, precisely the same as on a branch; though 
where the root goes under ground, both nearer 
and farther from the stem, the under layer will 
be white. The layer under the outer cuticle 
may also be observed green at the commence¬ 
ment of the root of a young tree, when it is acci¬ 
dentally exposed near the neck of the plant. 
This is not a matter of opinion, but a matter of 
fact, and we have only to use our eyes to see it. 

On the other hand, since writing this, I have 
observed that, in those parts of the stems of 
seedlings which pass through earth, the piths 
and the herbaceous envelopes are as white as 
those of roots. I say those of roots, for I 
have also observed that the tap-roots of seed¬ 
lings have piths of precisely the same size as 
the stems. And I doubt not it will be found 
that the roots, as well as the stems, consist 
Solely of alternate layers of pith and wood, with 
one outer skin or cuticle. If roots have no piths, 
what are the rays or silver grain in the roots of 
oaks? Non-medullary rays? In the experi¬ 
ments which I have detailed, with a view to 


That roots have 
no piths an 
error. 


m 


UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, AND [Part II. 


induce the stems to grow downward to the light, 
and the roots upward in the earth, some of 
the gemmules or stems grew upward, and came 
out of the hole at the then upper part of the 
inverted flower-pot. These plants passed through 
eight inches and a half of earth. On dividing 
them lengthwise I found that, in those parts of 
the stem which grew in the air, the piths and 
herbaceous envelopes were green, and in those 
parts which grew in the earth they were white. 
The piths ran the entire length of the roots as 
well as the stems; and where the necks of the 
plants divided the stems from the roots, the two 
piths were continuous, and of precisely equal 
size. It is the universal error in physiology, to 
believe that roots have no piths. Let any one 
divide a seedling horse-chesnut, and he will con¬ 
vince himself. 

Each layer of bark is supposed to have its 
proper pith or cellular ring outside it. The 
green cellular or “ herbaceous envelope ” under 
the outer cuticle is supposed to be the pith 
of the outer layer of bark, and to be to the 
layers of bark what the central pith is to 
the layers of wood ; and throughout its whole 
extent there is probably a direct vascular com¬ 
munication between this green external pith of 


Chap. III.] DOWNWARD GROWTH OF THE ROOT. 


125 


the bark and the internal central pith of the 
wood, by means of the medullary rays. This 
green parenchymatous pith of the bark is in com¬ 
munication with and is in fact a continuation 
of the parenchymatous parts of the leaves (the 
spongy porous parts, as distinguished from the 
woody fibrous parts), as the outer skin or cuticle 
of the stem is of the cuticle of the leaves and 
buds. 

All physiologists talk of the circulation of the 
sap: and the expression must be used, though it 
is a very incorrect one; that is, no one, I believe, 
has asserted, nor can we suppose any one to 
imagine, that there is a true circulation of the 
sap of plants, like that of the blood of animals. 
By the circulation of the sap is meant merely its 
ascent through the wood into the leaves and 
buds, thence into the green outer pith of the 
bark, on which the leaves and buds are situated, 
and its descent to the roots, through the living 
parts of the bark. How the descent dies off and 
stops, it is difficult to imagine; but it^is still 
more difficult to suppose that any part of the 
sap should re-ascend . The whole affair, how¬ 
ever, is a matter of the merest conjecture. 

The “ proper juices ” of plants are found in 
this green “ herbaceous envelope; ” for example, 


There is no true 
circulation of 
the sap like that 
of the blood of 
animals. 


126 


UPWARD GROWTH OF THE HEAD, ETC. [Part II. 

resin in the fir : and the woods of different trees 
do not differ more in their proper constituents 
than the barks of different trees; and, possibly , 
as the first herbaceous envelope is burst and 
destroyed, the next ring of pith assumes its 
functions. 

Let the practical man guard these external 
piths from external injury. Besides the gnaw¬ 
ing of horses, cattle like to find soft-barked trees, 
such as Scotch firs, &c., of a size that they can 
take between their horns to rub their foreheads 
against, and do infinite mischief in this way. 
Trees that are too large for this are compara¬ 
tively safe, as the side rubbing of cattle does not 
injure them so much; besides, that the dead 
epidermis of old trees is a great defence to them. 
It is the mechanical injury which is to be 
guarded against: the idea of chemical poisoning 
from animal oil is a fancy. 


Chap. IV.] 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


127 


CHAP. 1Y. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

ln July, 1832, I observed a horse-chesnut tree 
near Esher, in the corner of a field adjoining 
S mdown turnpike-gate. It had been barked by 
cattle all round, I should suppose twenty or 
twenty-five years before, since the surface of the 
barked part was rotten, and might be picked off. 
Mr. King, steward to Mr. Spicer, to whom the 
tree belongs, said that he had recollected the 
tree in this state for eighteen years. 

The head of the tree was in full foliage, and 
at the end of some branches, which had been 
cropped by cattle the previous year, had shot 
s;x or seven inches. The girth of the barked 
part of the stem was thirteen inches and seven 
eighths. The girth below the barked part was 
twenty-two inches and a quarter, and above the 
barked part, twenty-nine inches. The tree had 
ceased to deposit new growth on the old scar, 
which I attribute to the rottenness of the sur¬ 
face of the scar, and to its having mouldered 


Barked horse- 
chestnut at 
Esher. 


128 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


[Part II. 


away from under the living bark. I think it 
probable that, if a new surface were veneered over 
the old scar, the stem would continue to deposit 
new growth on it from above. This tree is still 
alive,—1844, having lived, possibly, nearly forty 
years in this state. 

I imagine that the reason that this tree has 
continued to live is, that each year it has shot 
out new branches from below the scar. These 
branches have each year been eaten off by cattle ; 
but they have elaborated and returned sufficient 
sap to nourish the root, and to keep it alive. I 
imagine that, if these branches had been allowed 
to grow, they would have taken so much sap 
that it would have ceased to be forced up the 
old stem, and that the old stem would have 
died. So that, but for the annual outburst of 
shoots below the scar, the roots of the tree would 
die; and but for the annual browsing of these 
shoots, the head of the tree would die. Yet on 
this precarious tenure the tree has for so long 
held its existence. But the existence of this 
tree and of rung branches proves to ocular de¬ 
monstration that the sap goes up the heart- 
wood, since on the scar and on the rings no new 
wood or alburnum is deposited. It is true that 
the number of rings of what is called sap-ivood 


Chap. IV.] 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


129 


or alburnum differ in different trees, and even 
parts of the rings of a tree may ripen sooner 
into heart-wood than other parts of the same 
rings, so that on the same transverse section of 
a tree there shall be more rings of sap-wood on 
one side than on the other. This may be ob¬ 
served in oaks; but on the scar of this tree no 
alburnum or sap-wood has been deposited for 
possibly nearly half a century. 

I published this account of this tree in 1844. 
In 1849, Dr. Lindley writes as follows: — 
“ Neither is it indispensable that bark should be 
present in order to allow the passage of sap 
downwards, as is proved by trees whose bark 
has been accidentally destroyed, continuing to 
live for many years. In such cases the supposi¬ 
tion is, that the falling sap passes laterally into 
the medullary plates, and descends by them 
until it gets into communication with those 
which end in bark, when the usual channel of 
descent is resumed.” 

I take this supposition to be the Doctor’s own 
particular supposition: and a supposition most 
difficult to swallow it is! 

But the Doctor makes it unnecessarily so. 
Why make the sap hop, skip, and jump from one 
medullary plate to another? These plates all 

K 


130 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


[Part II. 


“ end in bark ” where there is bark to end in, 
and are all continuous from end to end of the 
stem and branches, and as, I assert, of the roots 
also. But that “ the falling sap ” should de¬ 
scend by these medullary plates is about as 
likely as that two meeting trains should pass one 
another on the same tramway, or, that if a 
man’s veins were destroyed his blood should flow 
to his heart through the arteries which are at 
the same time conducting it from his heart. 
And if the sap did descend at all below the scar, 
the tree would increase below the scar, which it 
does not, unless there is an outbreak of branches 
below the scar. 

This is the gentleman who some pages before 
finds the heart-wood so “ filled with secretions ” 
that there is no room even for the upward sap 
to ascend through it. Yet now he makes it 
convey both upward and downward sap, for 
there can be no sap-wood under an old scar. 
But this voluminous compiler of other people’s 
ideas, states all, however incompatible or con¬ 
tradictory one may be to the other, and uses 
either as convenient. Here he makes the growth 
in diameter to be the result of “ the falling sap.” 
A little before he adopts, confidently, the theory 
of Darwin and Du Petit-Thouars. In this there 
is no “ falling sap ” allowed; but a downward 


Chap. IV.] 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


131 


growth “ of organic fibres descending from the 
leaf-buds.” If this theory were true, a common 
mind would shrink from the difficulty of passing 
these organic fibres through the medullary 
plates, even the first year : but it would require 
a Lindley to face the annually increasing diffi¬ 
culty ; especially as neither the barked part of 
the stem, nor the part below it, is to increase in 
girthing by these successive growths and de¬ 
posits of organic fibres. Or, if the barked part 
is to increase, it must be on the principle of 
one of De Candolle’s monocotyledonous endogens ; 
I like sesquipedalia! 

Mr. Wallis brings forward a fact which is, 
perhaps, as complete a stunner as the Doctor’s 
theory. He gives a portrait of a thorn which 
lived and grew for seven years after its stem was 
sawed across and divided from its roots : “ On 
examination, the lower part of its stem had re¬ 
mained of the size it was when sawed through ; 
whereas the upper part of the stem that had 
been so suspended in the air by its branches, had 
gained three inches in circumference.” Bravo! 
This is a famous fact for that numerous class of 
physiologists who, with Priestley and Liebig at 
their head, believe that trees elaborate their 
thick bulk from the thin air through the medium 
K 2 


132 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


[Part II. 


of their leaves. And it is a knock-me-down blow 
to those more commonplace grovellers who, with 
myself in their rear, fancy that roots may be 
necessary for the growth of timber. But I think 
that Mr. Wallis must have been mistaken. The 
effect he describes is precisely what we should 
expect if the stem were sawed quite round , but 
not quite through . Then the thorn would be in 
precisely the same situation as the barked horse- 
chestnut which I have just described. The sap 
would flow from the roots up that part of the 
heart-wood which was not sawed through, and 
in its descent through the bark would deposit 
new growth as low as the wound, but no lower. 
Below the wound no growth would occur; and 
the roots, unless the stem broke out below, being 
unfed, would, in the course of years, die. If 
this is not the true solution, if the fact stated 
by Mr. Wallis is a fact, then let us see it again. 
•Nothing can be more easy than to repeat the 
experiment. Let those who, with Mr. Wallis 
and the great Liebig, consider the root as a mere 
pedestal for the mechanical support of the tree 
and not for the supply of its food, let them try 
this experiment on their wall-fruit trees. These 
trees are already nicely “ suspended in the air 
by their branches: ” cut the stems below the 


Chap. IV.] MISCELLANEOUS. 133 

heads and eradicate them. The trunkless heads 
on the wall, full of growth, leaves, and fruit, 
would be curious and beautiful objects! and 
the absence of the roots below would be a great 
convenience to the gardener ! 

We, indeed, see daily, in plashing thorn 
hedges, how small a quantity of wood and bark 
is necessary to form the connecting link between 
the head and the root, and permanently to pre¬ 
serve vitality. But if Mr. Wallis’s facts are 
facts, we should see them every day ; we should 
see the stems and branches of trees and under¬ 
wood, when cut, continue to grow, and their 
roots die. But what we do see is the exact re¬ 
verse of this. 

Mr. Wallis alludes also to the fact, that trees 
when cut down will sometimes shoot out in the 
next summer. This has been always known, and 
always accounted for by the elder physiologists 
as the effect of, what they called, the concrete 
sap previously stored in the tree. But as trees 
separated from their roots are separated from 
the source of their sap, these shoots never live 
after the first summer. 

As the roots of trees grow in length through Best time for 

_ . , . „ . .... transplanting 

the earth they are in perfect contact with it, with the ban 
and as they increase each year in girthing this 


134 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


[Part II. 


contact is continued, and the pressure against 
the earth even increased. I imagine that this 
close contact of the roots with the earth is very- 
essential for the absorption of moisture; and 
that, when a ball of earth is taken up with a 
transplanted tree, the parts of the roots con¬ 
tained in the ball are infinitely more efficient 
for the supply of sap than five times their length 
of root not in perfect contact with the earth. 
But certain it is, that, by taking a large ball of 
earth, with “ the tree-lifter,” I have transplanted 
trees of about twenty-five feet in height in every 
month in the year, without a single failure, and 
without the plant feeling its removal so much as 
a greenhouse plant does potting, that is, with¬ 
out a single leaf drooping, even in the hottest 
days of June, July, and August, though the 
plant was unwatered, and with the same growth 
on the tree, in the next and following years, as 
on those in the plantation from which it was 
taken. 

In 1846, I sent the following to the Hamp¬ 
shire paper, which appeared 13 th June : “ Any 
one taking interest in vegetable physiology, who 
happens to be in the neighbourhood of Brook- 
wood Park, is invited to inspect a tree trans¬ 
planted on Wednesday, the 3rd instant. On 


Chap. IV.] 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


135 


that day the thermometer stood at 80° in the 
shade, and at 120° in the sun; and there was a 
parching east wind. This extraordinary heat 
continued for five days, and is now only begin¬ 
ning to abate. Yet, although the tree is in full 
foliage, not a single leaf has flagged. The 
height of the tree is 27 ft., its girth 1 ft. 10 in. 
Every root is cut at the distance of about two 
feet from the tree. It can, therefore, have few 
ends of roots to feed it. That it is not supplied 
by the leaves, as Liebig and others suppose, is 
clear, because the leaves of the branches which 
were cut off at the transplanting could not even 
supply themselves, but died before the trans¬ 
planting was completed, and dried immediately. 
If the leaves supplied the tree with sap, these 
branches should have remained green. One 
scorched specimen of them is attached to the 
tree. The tree stands in the right-hand hedge 
bordering the road going down from the Brook- 
wood Lodge gate to the Dean, at the point 
where the cross-hedge falls on the road. The 
smaller trees on the sides of this road were 
planted from the nursery in January, 1834. 
The larger beech-trees among them were trans¬ 
planted with 4 the tree-lifter ’ at different times 
since that year, chiefly, like the tree in question, 

K 4 


136 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


[Part II. 


in full leaf, and in the months of June, July, 
and August.” The tree transplanted in 1846 
is growing well at the present writing (1853), 
and has grown well in all the intervening years. 

I consider, however, that the worst time to 
transplant a tree is when it is shooting: the 
best time, as soon as possible after it has shot; 
that is, as soon as it has formed its winter-bud. 
This will differ in different trees. Some are fit 
to transplant in June, or even in May. The 
best months for transplanting the generality of 
English trees with the ball of earth, are July, 
August, and September ; for, though the upward 
growth has then ceased, the growth in girthing, 
and the downward growth, that is, the elonga¬ 
tion of the roots, are in the fullest tide. 

From observation of the growth of the root 
in potted plants, and also of the seedlings of 
trees grown in water (one of which I have in its 
seventh year’s growth, 1844), I am satisfied that 
the great downward growth of the root takes 
place immediately after the great upward growth 
of the head; that is, at the end of summer, 
during the autumn and in early winter: and 
that the wounds of the roots of trees, trans¬ 
planted immediately after they have made their 
upward shoot, begin to heal or cicatrise, or, as 


Chap. IV.] 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


137 


the gardeners say, callous over immediately. 
These callouses are a prolific source of new 
shoots for the root, which besides, from having 
been shortened, makes a profusion of lateral 
shoots that same season. These shoots become 
woody, and the root is consequently in a state 
to supply the great upward demand next spring. 

We may convince ourselves by experiment, 
that the downward is after the upward growth 
of trees. If notches are cut on the stem of a 
tree from the root to the setting on of the first 
branches, the new growth over the scars will be 
when the tree is ceasing to shoot. The upper 
notches will heal first, in the form of a horse¬ 
shoe, with the heels downwards; that is, the 
growth will be on the upper part and the sides of 
the notches, without any growth from the lower 
parts of the notches. This fact also strongly 
corroborates the opinion that the new growth in 
girthing is from the downward sap ; for if it 
were a side-deposit from the upward sap, the 
lowest notches should heal first, and the healing 
would be from their lower sides. I have found 
that, if stems thus notched are inverted, the new 
growth comes only from the sides, of the notches, 
and neither from the upper nor lower parts of 
them, which I am unable to account for. But 


138 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


[Part II. 


The growth in 
girthing de¬ 
scending from 
the head or any 
particular 
branch is gene¬ 
ral round the 
stem, though 
it is greater on 
the side proper 
to the branch; 


and the growth 
may be me¬ 
chanically 
and continually 
turned from 


the notches nearest the head are the first to 
heal, and those nearest the root the last to heal. 

The new growth on the notches will be free 
in proportion as they are in the line with large 
branches above them : and I imagine that, though 
the returning sap from branches deposits round 
the whole stem, it deposits most freely on the 
proper side of the branches; and the larger 
annual deposit found on the outsides of the out¬ 
side trees of plantations, which has been attri¬ 
buted by Duhamel and Buffon to their having 
their largest roots on that side, is, I have no 
doubt, the result of their having their largest 
branches on that side. An exposed tree stand¬ 
ing singly will throw out its roots equally all 
round it ; but the new layers of wood round the 
stem will be much the largest on the leeward 
side, because the largest branches are on the 
leeward side; yet, if the upper part of one half 
of the side of a stem is dead, the opposite living 
side will deposit round the whole living part 
below. And I imagine that it is thus that the 
windward roots of an exposed tree are nourished 
by the descending sap from its leeward branches. 

Indeed, the downward stream of the growth 
in girthing may at will be mechanically stopped 
on one side of the stem, and projected to the 


Chap. IV.] 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


139 


other. This may be observed in the natural 
spiral carved work, formed by woodbine on the 
stems of coppice-wood; and doubtless, if instead 
of the woodbine wire were placed spirally up 
the stems, very regular and beautiful patterns 
might be produced. Wire fences, fixed on the 
stems of trees, destroy the circulation and kill 
the sides of the trees on which they are fixed. 

Again, as far as I have remarked, though 
young roots are round, the older ones greatly 
incline to the oval shape; and in all the trans¬ 
verse sections of roots which I have examined 
the eccentricity of the common point from which 
the ( medullary ?) rays diverge, and which is 
occasioned by the comparatively over-growth of 
the upper sides of the new annual rings, is very 
striking. I imagine that this is caused mechani¬ 
cally , and that it is the result of the growth in 
girthing of the roots meeting with less mecha¬ 
nical resistance from the earth on the upper 
sides. 

As long as a branch-root exists, it must, 
owing to its lateral growth in girthing, annually 
approach the surface of the ground, and, after 
that is reached, ascend above the surface. 
Suppose a root to run horizontally at the depth 
of one foot below the surface of the earth. Sup- 


one side of the 
stem to the 
other. 


Lateral upward 
growth of the 
root. 


140 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


[Part II. 


pose this root to increase only 5 -in. in diameter 
each year, — in less than a century, that is in 
ninety-six years, it will be even with the surface, 
and in another century it will be one foot above 
the surface. Without contravening circum¬ 
stances, this rising of the roots may be seen 
around all old trees. 

In the growth in girthing of the roots, the 
earth above the roots is easily displaced, that on 
the sides with more difficulty, and the earth 
below roots with still greater difficulty. In 
proportion, then, as the surface against which the 
lower sides of roots grow is unyielding, each 
root has a tendency to upheave itself bodily , be¬ 
sides the rising at its upper surface from what is 
called the growth by juxta-position; and the 
whole mass of roots have a tendency to upheave 
the whole tree. In the case of roots growing on 
rock this upheaval must take place, or the roots 
must cease to grow on their lower sides. 

In the observation above in regard to the 
lateral upward growth of roots, credit is only 
taken for half of the growth in diameter, that is, 
for l- 8 th of an inch growth, on the upper side of 
the root. The other l- 8 th of an inch growth on 
the lower side is supposed to displace the earth 
downward. I think it, however, likely, in the 


Chap. IV.] 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


141 


generality of cases, that, owing to the resistance 
of the subsoil, the progress of the root upward 
is equal to nearly the whole of the growth in 
diameter; and that, in proportion as the deposit 
of new growth below the root decreases from 
mechanical pressure, the new deposit above the 
root increases. I have seen ash-trees growing 
on gravel with the roots all round them above 
the ground to an extent of double the length of 
the boughs. 

Where cattle do not come, and where the 
surface is not liable to denudation, as turf or 
pavement, the ground may be observed to be 
raised about the roots of trees by this lateral 
upward growth of the roots. Where cattle do 
come the case may be altered. Cattle use trees 
as rubbing-posts, and as refuges from flies, the 
sun, wind, or rain. Under such circumstances, 
the ground, instead of being raised, is often worn 
into hollows around trees: for, the herbage 
being worn away, in drought the earth is blown 
away as dust, and cattle paw and cast it up 
with their feet to drive the flies from them; in 
wet weather, the earth is carried away on the 
feet of the cattle. This, and the eternal disposi¬ 
tion of roots to rise by lateral growth in girthing, 
bring them in contact with the feet of cattle, 


142 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


[Part II. 


and they become what is called u cattle-trod 
This is a frequent cause of the death of large 
trees, or of their decay. 

If there is this inherent natural tendency of 
roots to rise above the ground, it is easy to 
imagine the slaughter which the gardener’s 
spade must commit among the roots of old fruit- 
trees. Indeed these, and the roots of trees which 
are resorted to by cattle, may be said to live in a 
perpetual state of destruction. 

I think it, however, probable that this martyr¬ 
dom of the root may incline gross-growing trees 
to grow fruit instead of wood. Thus the graft¬ 
ing on a stock of minor growth, or the ringing 
of a branch, or the tying a ligature round it, or 
anything which checks the growth of a tree or 
branch, inclines it to fruit. I have been told by 
one whose word I trust as well as my eyes, that 
he once cut a standard pear-tree half down (that 
is, he cut half through the stem just above the 
root), because, though a gross-grower, the tree 
never bore fruit. He was accidentally called otf 
his work, and neglected to finish it. The tree 
not only lived, but was ever after a profuse 
bearer. It is the beautiful and beneficent pro¬ 
vision of our Creator that, in proportion to their 
age, decay, and approach to death, the vital 


Chap. IV.] 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


143 


energies of trees are converted to the production 
of seed, for the re-production of their species in 
youth and vigour. 

In the case of trees which are free growers 
but shy bearers, put them or parts of them out 
of health somehow. Dig half their roots to 
death -— ring half their branches — or half bark 
their stems. For we must grow fruit, not 
timber, in our gardens and orchards. But do 
not dig all your trees to death, and then swear 
that they killed themselves by diving. And in 
the case of trees of minor growth, top-dress 
them, and break the surface over their roots 
charily. 

As the generality of roots do not leave the 
tender superficial seedling either in vertical or 
horizontal lines, but in lines forming angles 
with these, the lateral increase of these com¬ 
mencements of roots, as they become imbedded 
and embodied in the trunk, forms the projecting 
spurs of old trees, or what is called “ the swell 
of the roots.” 

When trees which have spurs are felled by 
horizontal cutting, the annual growths of the 
spurs are not cut directly across , but diagonally, 
or slantwise: indeed, sometimes the cut ap¬ 
proaches to being lengthwise with the grain. This 


Origin of spurs 
and the swell 
of the roots. 


144 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


[Part II. 


makes each annual growth appear much larger 
than it really is, and elicits such expressions as 
“ How finely the tree was growing at last! ” or, 
“ How finely it was growing on this or that 
side! ” though, in reality, the growth may have 
been on the wane. 

Aided by turgescence, the lateral growth in 
girthing of the roots takes place with a force 
almost resistless. It will upheave enormous 
weights, and may frequently be seen to rupture 
roots crossing the spurs. But the force must be 
quite resistless to perform the office assigned by 
the supporters of the tap-root. Let us suppose 
a first-rate oak of 30 ft. in girthing, and 100 ft. in 
height. Let us give this tree, according to the 
vulgar error, a tap-root equivalent to its stem. 

This is the true Yirgilian creed in regard to 
the tap-root of the aesculus, and may have been 
the vulgar creed in that respect for thousands of 
years before Yirgil wrote: — 

“ JEsculus* imprimis, quae quantum vertice ad auras 
JEtherias, tantum radice in Tartara tendit.” 

* Perhaps tap-rootists will tell us what tree the aesculus 
is. I have not the least idea. Modern authorities say that 
it is the beech; and, in reference to the eating of the beech 
mast, they derive the name from esca , as they do the name 
of fagus from <payw. But Ovid mentions the aesculus as 
distinct from the fagus {Met. lib. x. 91). And Virgil 


Chap. IV.] 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


145 


Such a tree, in the form of its stem and root 
together, should resemble two carrots placed 
head to head, or two cones with their bases one 
on the other. It should have no spurs whatever, 
or swell of the roots; but, on the contrary, 
should immediately decrease below the earth. 
We will say nothing of the mechanical difficulty 
of boring (with a sponge ) through the solid 
deposits at the depth of 100 ft. from the surface 
in the longitudinal growth of the root, or of 
what the sponge, or the one capillary stoma , is to 
get there in the way of chemical nutriment; but 
to enable this monster carrot to increase laterally 
at these depths would require a force indeed re¬ 
sistless,—a force equal to that of igneous action, 
—a force sufficient to cleave the world asunder. 
In whatever light we view the idea of a tap-root, 
except for the seedling, it appears to me so 
preposterous that I think we may at least throw 
the onus probandi on the assertors of the 
positive, and say, “ If there be such a thing as a 
tap-root, find one, and show it to us.” 

Nay, I am so easily contented that I shall be 
satisfied of the existence of a tap-root, if a large 
oak can be shown without the large spurs indi¬ 
mentions it as distinct from the quercus, in the beginning of 
the second book of the Georgies. 

L 


A tap-rooted 
tree should have 
no spurs or 
swell of the 
roots. 


146 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


[Part IT. 


Girthing of the 
stem dependent 
on the quantity 
of branches 
above it. 


cative of horizontal roots. Practically, some of 
the best growing trees that I have ever trans¬ 
planted are oaks. I need not say that these had 
no tap-roots, or that if they had, they would not 
have borne transplanting. 

The largest growth in girthing on branches is 
on the sides on which they have the most spray 
or small twigs ; so that branches which grow dia¬ 
gonally upward, having the greater quantity of 
spray on the outside, on account of the greater 
quantity of light, will also have their annual 
rings of wood largest on the outside from the 
descending sap of the spray depositing most 
freely on its own side. 

But the stem of a tree will be exactly like a 
river: its size will depend on the number and 
size of the branches which fall into it; and it 
will be seen to increase below and to decrease 
above the spot where each of its tributary 
branches joins it. It is beautifully ordained 
that no branch can grow above without deposit¬ 
ing below strength to support itself. 

Fir-trees, which are very regular in the size 
and position of their branches, are for this 
reason very regular in the tapering of their 
stems; but if the lower branches are cut, or 
killed by their neighbours, in the course of time 


Chap. IV.] 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


147 


the branchless part of the stem loses its taper¬ 
ing form. And the stem of any tree which has 
been long bare of branches shows like the Lower 
Nile,— unvarying in size, because without a 
tributary. It will appear to the eye as large 
above as below: for, as regards the horizontal 
girthing, the head deposits equally down the 
whole extent of the bare stem below it; that is, 
though the over-deposit of growth from over¬ 
large branches on their own side of the stem 
may tend to make the stem oval instead of 
round, this will make no difference to the com¬ 
parative horizontal girthing of the tree at dif¬ 
ferent heights. And if equals are annually 
added to unequals, though the original absolute 
inequality will for ever remain the same, the 
relative inequality will annually decrease; and 
the stems of trees which have been long branch¬ 
less may be found of nearly the same girthing 
for fifty or sixty feet in height. If the yearling 
shoot is one inch in diameter, and the two-year- 
old shoot two inches in diameter, the girthing of 
one will be double that of the other: but if each 
shoot increases annually one inch in diameter, 
the proportion of their difference alters the first 
year; that is, the girthing of one, instead of 
being twice as large, is only one third larger 


148 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


[Part II. 


There is a con¬ 
stant circulation 
of sap even in 
winter. 


than the other; and when one girths ten feet, 
the other will girth ten feet one inch, which is 
in effect no difference at all. 

Against the theory of the one vernal ascent, 
and the one autumnal descent of the sap, and in 
favour of the constant circulation, or at least 
constant supply of sap, we must consider that 
boughs even of considerable thickness, cut off in 
the autumn, will become dried throughout before 
the spring. But what can account for the mois¬ 
ture of boughs, and even the most, delicate spray, 
exposed at great heights in the air, but the con¬ 
stant supply of sap ? 

Indeed, if the first theory were correct, there 
is no reason why plants should not live through 
the winter out of the ground, and plants taken 
up in the autumn should grow as freely when 
again put in in the spring as if they had just 
been taken up. The contrary of this is the 
case ; the roots of plants taken up in the autumn, 
as well as the plants themselves, unless they are 
“laid by the heel” soon become dry. Why ? 
Because the roots are deprived of the power of 
imbibing moisture. 

I suppose there may be physiologists who 
think the roots of trees useless at all times, 
except to fix the trees ; for if there is no cir- 


Chap. IV.] MISCELLANEOUS. 149 

culation in the winter the roots are useless in 
the winter, and if, according to Liebig, trees 
derive their nutriment from their leaves in the 
summer, the roots are useless in the summer. I 
differ in both cases. 

I have observed that, if the stem of a young 
tree grown in water is cut at the beginning 
of winter, the root immediately ceases to grow ; 
doubtless, because the stem is necessary to re¬ 
turn the sap to nourish the root. If this theory if there is a 

winter circula- 

is true, if there is a winter circulation of sap, tion, co PP ice- 

1 wood should be 

coppice-wood, hedges, and shrubs which are 
intended to shoot up again, should be cut at the 
end of winter, — not at the beginning of winter. 

If they are cut at the beginning of winter, all 
circulation of the sap must be destroyed through 
the whole winter, till the plant can shoot out 
again in the spring; since the communication 
between the wood and the bark is annihilated: 
for, in winter, the buds form the points of junc¬ 
tion between the upward current of the sap in 
the wood and the downward current in the 
bark. I imagine that this circulation and ela¬ 
boration do go on in the winter; that, in the 
early part of winter, actual new growth of the 
root is often going on; and that, during the 


150 


MISCELLANEOUS 


[Part II. 


whole of winter, the new growth is solidifying 
and becoming woody. 

I consider it a proof both of the existence and 
of the necessity of this winter circulation and 
elaboration of the sap, that shrubs which are 
headed at the beginning of winter are very liable 
to break out; they then suffer much from the 
frost. Besides this, the hoarded elaborated sap, 
which would be of infinite value for the spring 
outbreak, is wasted on this false start, not to 
mention the annihilation of any winter-buds 
which may have been on the plants below where 
they were cut. When I have cut down syca¬ 
mores in August, of about twenty years’ growth, 
I have known them make this unnatural effort 
to relieve their roots from suffocation; and I 
have observed the leaves on the shoots which 
they have then thrown out green to the middle 
of the succeeding January. Plants which do 
not ripen their wood, and which are annually 
killed in parts by frost, such as fuchsias, ver¬ 
benas, &c., should not be cut till the frost does 
come; they should then be cut immediately . 
This not only gives the last chance for the 
ripening of the roots, but if the plants are cut 
earlier they are very liable to break out, and 
then suffer from frost. 


Chap. IV.] 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


151 


But, perhaps, the strongest proof of a winter 
circulation of sap is, that if boughs of ever¬ 
greens are cut in the winter, and suspended to 
the boughs among which they grew, they die, 
while all remains green around them. Why is 
this, but because their brethren are supplied 
with sap from the parent root, while they are 
cut off from it ? Yet, according to Liebig, 
branches in leaf should not only support them¬ 
selves, but feed the tree which bears them 
through the hot months of continental summers. 
So far from this, however, being the case, they 
cannot even support themselves in the moist 
atmosphere of an English winter. 

The laurel is among the latest in fading. 
In about three weeks, however, its leaves may 
be seen to turn paler, and may be felt less 
leather-like and more thin and paper-like. The 
dead leaves will then constantly play the second 
act of Gideon’s fleece; that is, they will be 
found dry when their surrounding living sister 
leaves are condensing and bedewed to the ut¬ 
most on both sides of each leaf. If the experi¬ 
ment is tried in an east wind and a clear sky, 
about the end of February or beginning of 
March, the fading and drying will be much 
more rapid ; still more rapid in a room with a 

L 4 


152 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


[Fart II* 


Best time for 
felling timber. 


Roots should 
not be covered 
deeply. 


fire. Nimium breves are the branches then, as 
every Christmas shows us. But all this proves 
what I began with, that all parts of plants imbibe 
in proportion as they are exposed to moisture, 
and exhaust in proportion as they are exposed 
to draught. 

I do not believe that the sap ever ceases to 
circulate; but the tide is perhaps at its lowest 
ebb in January, and that is possibly the best 
month for felling timber. Timber which is 
felled at the high tide of sap and growth is ex¬ 
tremely liable to fermentation and decay. 

It is a dangerous experiment to cover up the 
roots of trees. Their chief duty appears to be 
to absorb moisture in the soil: but atmospheric 
aeration is necessary to them; and under the 
eternal agency of physical causes, acting pro¬ 
bably on the peculiar structure of their cellular 
organisation, the roots of each tree grow at the 
level best adapted to them, and to. the offices 
which they have to perform. This should not 
be interfered with. If dressing is laid on the 
roots, it should not be deep, or of a nature im¬ 
permeable to air. 

Trees which have had their roots deeply 
covered up languish and die, unless they throw 
out a new set of roots above the old ones which 


Chap. IV.] 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


153 


have been smothered. In this case, the whole 
tree may considered as a huge cutting which has 
(mirabile dictu /) struck . But, generally, the new 
tier of roots is not strong enough to supply the 
exhaustion of the old head; and if death does not 
result, the head dies in and rots the stem from 
above, while the old roots do the same from 
below. Roots are obliged to keep the surface, 
because the food of plants lies there, though 
many think that this food is imbibed from the 
atmosphere; if so, trees would not be injured 
by having their roots covered. 

I believe Sir Humphrey Davy first remarked, 
on the assumption that the upward and downward 
growth of plants is vertical , that woods and crops 
growing on the side of a hill would derive no 
greater advantage from the additional space than 
if they grew on the horizontal surface of its base. 
But it must be recollected, that, as the plants on 
the side of a hill rise tier above tier, with the 
same light and aeration from above they have a 
greater side light and aeration. They are, in 
fact, placed head above head, like people in a 
race-stand, where, but for this arrangement, the 
spectators would have good opportunity for look¬ 
ing upward at the roof, but none for looking side¬ 
ways at the race. But the merit of this prin- 


That a hill af¬ 
fords no more 
space for growth 
than its base 
would, an error. 


154 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


[Part II. 


ciple is very apparent in the step-stands in green¬ 
houses; though, probably, the origin of these 
stands may be the greater facility they give to 
see and to water the plants. But if the plants 
stood on the area of the base of the stand, each 
would be shaded all round by its neighbours, 
and would receive light only from above. The 
base of what is called in Hampshire u a hanger,” 
or a hanging wood, would not support as many 
trees with full heads as stand on the hill-side. 
Let us conceive these 

“ Densas, umbrosa cacumina, fagos ” 

to be sunk vertically downward from their beau¬ 
tiful gradations, till their roots shall stand on 
the base of the hanger. The long one-sided 
columns of green will be submerged, smothered, 
and killed below the one common level of the 
tops, and the plants will be deprived almost 
entirely of their organs of respiration and trans¬ 
piration. But besides this greater space for the 
heads, there is also greater space for the roots of 
plants growing on the side of a hill, than if they 
had only the base of the hill-side to grow on. 
For roots, as has been shown, have the power of 
following the surface of the earth, be the incli¬ 
nation upward or downward what it will. And 


Ciiap. IV.] 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


155 


they do not grow solely vertically downward 
like the tap-root of a seedling. In reference to 
an entire hill, of a given base, this increase of 
surface or space for the roots will be not only 
directly as the height of the hill, but also directly 
as the steepness of its sides. Taking one side of 
a hill, if the side forms an angle of forty-five 
degrees with the horizon, its additional surface 
or space for roots, as compared with its base, 
will be as the diagonal is to the side of a square. 

We are not to expect that trees drawn up in Effect of wind 

on trees. 

the interior of sheltered plantations, and trans¬ 
planted to exposed situations, will grow. If we 
could move a cube acre of ground, with a young 
tree, from a sheltered to an exposed situation, 
the plant would dwindle and decay. A tree 
grown in an exposed situation contrives by 
degrees to shelter itself; that is, it grows to 
leeward of itself. For the windward growth 
diverts the current of the wind, and throws it up. 

And we see, in exposed trees and woods, that 
they get taller by degrees from the windward to 
the leeward side. The chief injury which trees 
suffer from wind is while they are shooting. 

If the weather is calm while they are shooting, 
they will make a year’s growth upward and to 
windward. But their general growth will be 


156 


MISCELLANEOUS. 


[Part II. 


Effect of sea 
breeze mecha¬ 
nical, not che¬ 
mical. 


only upward and to leeward; not from being 
bent by the wind that way, but from all other 
growth being destroyed while the shoots are 
tender, and from the wind having a much 
greater power to break twigs which meet it than 
those which grow down the wind. Plenty of ex¬ 
amples of this sort of growth may be seen in the 
neighbourhood of the sea. This is from the 
mechanical force acquired by the wind in passing 
over the uninterrupted surface of the sea. It is 
common to attribute the blasted vegetation of 
trees in the neighbourhood of the sea to the 
saline or chemical qualities of the sea breeze. 
If it were so, the growth would not be hurt 
more on one side of the tree than the other. If 
it were so, trees would grow as luxuriantly on 
the south-west side, and on the top of Mount 
Edgecombe, as they do on the sheltered north¬ 
east side, for the chemical qualities of the atmo¬ 
sphere must be the same in each place. If it 
were so, we should not find the same sort of 
scarecrow growth on our inland bare plains and 
heaths as we do along our coasts. In a bare, 
open country, we have only to see on which side 
of a tree is the lowest and shortest growth of its 
head, to know where the south-west is. And if 
the stem of such a tree is cut across, the largest 


Chap. IV.] MISCELLANEOUS. 

sides of the annual rings of wood will be found 
on the north-east side. If it is attempted, by 
pruning out the leeward growth, to give exposed 
trees straight leaders, or to force them to grow 
to windward, they will decay from want of head 
to return a sufficient nourishment to the root; 
though, if it is gradually done, trees may be 
very much helped on this principle. Firs being 
essentially single-leadered trees, and not having 
the reproductive powers of deciduous trees, stand 
wind very badly. It is the common error to be¬ 
lieve that they will stand exposure well, because 
they are found high up mountains. But this is 
only where they are sheltered by the mountain- 
side; and they will not bear well the exposure 
even of our low bare plains, still less of the tops 
of very moderate hills. I except the silver fir. 

Trees may be often remarked whose growth 
has a stratified effect, with bare stems between 
the strata, or stages of growth. I think this 
may be from occasional accidental blights of 
growth from wind. 1 have never seen this sort 
of growth in sheltered situations. 


157 


158 


ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, [Part III. 


The food of 
plants is ex¬ 
tracted from the 
soil. But if 
the plants are 
returned to the 
soil, no impo¬ 
verishment 
takes place. 


PART III. 

ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, OR POI¬ 
SONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH ? THESE QUES¬ 
TIONS INCLUDE EXCRETION FROM ROOTS; SO¬ 
CIABILITY OF PLANTS; ACCUMULATION OF SOIL 
IN WOODS; GENERAL DENUDATION OF SOIL FROM 
WASH OF RAIN. 

I think that the food of plants is absorbed from 
the soil, not from the atmosphere; but that, if 
the remains of dead plants are restored to 'the 
soil from which they grew, owing to vegetable 
chemistry, independently of disintegration of rock, 
soils would become enriched, not impoverished. 
The two great causes of impoverishment of soils 
are, abstraction of vegetable crops by man or 
animals, and aqueous denudation, that is, the 
wash of rain. The food of plants is of two sorts, 
the organic or combustible , that part which can 
be consumed in burning; and the inorganic or 
incombustible , that part which remains as ashes 
after burning. Both parts are, in my opinion, 
absorbed by the roots from the soil; at least, 
what is absorbed as food from the atmosphere 
may be reckoned as nothing in comparison to 
what is absorbed by the roots from the soil. In 
reference to the combustible constituents of the 
food of plants, Liebig tells us that the presence 


Part III.] OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH ? 


159 


of oxygen—consequently, of atmospheric air— 
is necessary for the generation of carbonic acid 
from the humus in the soil; and Priestley and 
Senebier have shown that from carbonic acid 
plants assimilate their carbon (which, loosely 
speaking, the whole of the tree may be said to 
consist of), by decomposing the carbonic acid, 
and giving off the oxygen. I should consider 
this as the cause why roots keep within the 
reach of atmospheric aeration, since the main 
article of the food of trees' is found in that 
district; though Liebig, and a host of modern 
physiologists, follow Priestley, Senebier, and De 
Saussure in thinking that after the first infancy 
of the plant, that is, after the development of 
leaves, it is indebted to the atmosphere only for 
the supply of carbonic acid. But can we doubt 
that the chief growth of plants is from con¬ 
stituents absorbed from the soil, not from the 
atmosphere, when we see the perpetual difference 
of growth of the same plants in the different 
soils of the same parish; that is, in the same 
atmosphere ? 

Liebig supposes plants to assimilate their 
nitrogen by decomposing ammonia, stored in 
soils from rain water, manure, and humus, and 
giving off the hydrogen ; their hydrogen, by 
decomposing water and giving off the oxygen. 


ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, [Part III. 

Carbon, nitrogen, hydrogen, and oxygen, with 
certain peculiar inorganic or incombustible mat¬ 
ters, are the sole constituents of plants. Indeed, 
all organic existences, that is, the endless va¬ 
rieties of the animal and vegetable kingdoms, 
are composed of these four elements alone. 
These four elements are contained in carbonic 
acid, water, and ammonia. Throughout all or¬ 
ganic nature, during life, combination from the 
constituents of these three goes on, and after 
death the decomposition of those combinations 
into the constituents of these three: that is, 
carbonic acid, water, and ammonia furnish the 
constituents from which, by combination, result 
all the exquisite living forms which we admire 
and love ; and into these three those forms are 
by decomposition eventually resolved. Through¬ 
out the realms of vitality the actual living are 
the late dead freshly combined; and from the 
decomposition of one generation of plants and 
animals the recomposition of another generation 
results.* 

* Pythagoras received doctrines very similar to these 
from Egypt and India. Ovid describes them thus : — 

“ Omnia mutantur; nihil interit .... 

Haec quoque non perstant quae nos elementa vocamus .... 

— ■ tamen omnia hunt; 

Ex ipsis, et in ipsa cadunt .... 

Nec species sua cuique manet, rerumque novatrix 
Ex aliis alias reparat Natura figuras. 


Part III.] OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 


161 


In reference to the incombustible parts of the 
food of plants, all will agree that these ashes of 
plants are absorbed from the soil, since they 
actually are soil. In trees their quantity, as 
compared with the combustible parts, is small; 
though during the life of the tree, in the che¬ 
mical processes of decomposition, elaboration, 
and assimilation, their effects may be very great. 
The combustible or organic parts of trees, 
though they are not soil, are absorbed by the 
roots from the soil; that is, their constituents 
are elaborated or chemically prepared for the 
plant in the soil, and absorbed by the roots from 
the soil. But as neither animals nor plants 
bring anything into the world with them, so 
neither of them take anything away with them ; 
and if their remains are restored to the soil, no 
impoverishment will take place. 

I have no faith in the supposed excretion 
from the roots of substances unnecessary to the 

Nec perit in tanto quidquam (mihi credite) mundo : 

Sed variat, faeiemque novat; nascique vocatur, 

Incipere esse aliud, quam quod fuit ante ; morique, 

Desinere illud idem.” 

These are sublime doctrines as regards matter. So is the 
“ morte carent animae,” as regards the soul. Alas ! that the 
profound philosophers who held these doctrines should have 
taken the one step beyond the transformation of matter to 
the ridiculous belief in the transmigration of souls. 

M 


Roots do not 
excrete. 


162 


ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, [Part III. 


growth of the tree. If this were so, the roots 
would soon be surrounded with such substances, 
and would be incapable of absorbing nutriment. 
In chalk districts eternal woods are found com¬ 
posed of nothing but beech ; in other soils, of 
nothing but oak. The oldest vineyards and the 
oldest hop-gardens are the best. And how 
many millions of acres are in this world covered 
with perpetual heath ! In all these cases, if the 
roots excreted substances unfit for nourishing 
the plants, the whole soil would have become 
saturated with them. Land plants grown in 
water are always unhealthy. Under these cir¬ 
cumstances, may not colouring matter, or other 
substances supposed by Macaire-Princep to be 
excretion, be the result of disease and decay or 
partial maceration of the roots. There is no 
discoloration of the water in which the seedlings 
of forest-trees are made to grow, while these are 
in health. 

I imagine that trees, in absorbing by their 
roots the moisture with which they come in 
contact, give off the unnecessary parts of this 
by transpiration in the air. I do not perceive 
what should cause roots to transpire when sur¬ 
rounded by moisture; or if they do, they must 
return, like the dog to his vomit, and again 
absorb their own transpirations. 


Part III.] OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 

If it were owing to the poisonous excretions 
of the roots that the same crops cannot be taken 
year after year from the same land, this cause 
would apply equally to all lands; but there is 
an infinite variety in soils in this respect. And 
this infinite variety, and the infinite gradations 
in richness and productiveness of different soils, 
prove that the nutriment of plants comes from 
the soil, not from the air. Yet the very same 
physiologist who makes the plant imbibe its 
food from the air by its leaves, will force it to 
swallow poison from the soil with its roots ! If 
plants feed through the medium of their leaves 
from the air, why manure the soil ? 

It is perhaps possible that the reason why 
each plant appears to have its favourite soil is, 
that it finds there in the greatest abundance the 
particular inorganic or incombustible matters 
adapted to its peculiar constitution; that the 
reason why particular plants will not grow in 
particular soils is, the absence of the particular 
inorganic matters adapted to their peculiar con¬ 
stitution ; and that the reason why particular 
plants cease to grow on particular lands is, their 
having taken up those peculiar inorganic con¬ 
stituents necessary to them, and these being 
together with the crop abstracted from the soil 


164 


ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, [Part in. 


by man,—not their having deposited a suicidal 
poison from their roots, and thus forming cases 
of vegetable u felo de se.” 

The organs of absorption of the roots of 
wheat, beans, potatoes, turnips, or mangel wur* 
zel, cabbage, and lucern sainfoin, or the common 
grasses, probably differ as much as the internal 
and external structure of the roots and plants ; 
and, besides, searching for their inorganic con¬ 
stituents at different levels in the soil, they may 
probably be only capable of taking up those 
adapted to their peculiar constitution.* 

That the proper juices, the various peculiar 
acids, and the organic salts, found as carbonates 
in the ashes of plants, and formed by the com¬ 
bination of the alkaline bases, potash, soda, lime, 
magnesia, with the peculiar organic acids of 
plants, play an essential part in the functions 
and development of the different parts of plants, 
cannot be doubted, though we are quite in the 
dark about it. And as regards the peculiar in- 

* We don’t know whether roots have the power of selec¬ 
tion or not, and, in reference to this all-important first prin¬ 
ciple of vegetable physiology, Liebig flatly contradicts him¬ 
self. Page 92., he writes, “ All substances in solution in a 
soil are absorbed by the roots of plants, exactly as a sponge 
imbibes a liquid and all that it contains without selection.” 
Page 101., he writes, “When roots find their more appro¬ 
priate base in sufficient quantity, they will take up less of 
another.” 


Part III.] OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 


165 


organic matters absorbed from the soil by par¬ 
ticular plants, while the land is bearing one sort 
of crop it may be lying fallow, and collecting 
them, by disintegration, for another sort. 

In this way rotation is of service in man's 
cropping; but in those farms or estates which 
God Almighty keeps in his own hands, where of 
all that is grown nothing is abstracted, vegetable 
growth, by its chemistry, enriches, not impo¬ 
verishes, the soil. 

Akin to the question of excretion from the Sociability of 

. . n , ... plants a fancy 

roots is that of the sociability of plants; and I 
have no more faith in the sociability of plants 
than in excretion from the roots. That par¬ 
ticular plants grow best on particular soils, and 
in particular climates, is clear; though Nature 
has not grouped her flora or her fauna solely in 
reference to soil and climate—that is, in refer¬ 
ence to the agreement or disagreement of the 
physiological constitutions, peculiar to the plants 
or animals, with the physical conditions existent 
in each district of the globe. 

Were it so, that is, were the same species of 
plants and animals always found under the same 
physical conditions, it might, with more reason, . 
be argued (as has been argued by Lamarck) 
that vitality itself is the mere result of physical 

M 3 


166 


ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, [Part HI. 


conditions—that the different constitutions of plants 
and animals are the result of different physical 
conditions—that the different species are mere 
changes of form and organisation resulting from 
different physical conditions — and that man 
himself is merely the final result of these mani¬ 
fold changes from the zoophyte upwards. But 
the Great Artificer authoritatively and absolutely 
contradicts all this by having, possibly from all 
time, and apparently successively , and at distinct 
times, and in comparatively modern times, 
created distinct existences or species, and kept 
these distinct species separate under precisely 
similar physical conditions. This is the case 
with animals, vegetables, birds, reptiles, insects, 
fish, shell animals, and zoophytes, whether any 
of all these named are terrestrial, or aquatic, or 
amphibious, or peculiar to fresh, brackish, or salt 
water. And not only is this so now, but appa¬ 
rently through an indefinite number of ages the 
terraqueous globe has been thus gradually and 
in succession stocked and restocked with species 
entirely distinct from those existing in this or in 
any of the different periods. Indeed, supposing 
species to have originated from single stocks, the 
creation of existing species could not have been 
simultaneous. Had it been simultaneous, all 
animals, herbivorous or carnivorous, must have 


Part III.] OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 


167 


fasted or have destroyed whole species at a 
mouthful. Creation must have been successive 
as far as this. Plants must have multiplied be¬ 
fore herbivorous animals were turned among 
them, and herbivorous animals before carnivorous 
animals were allowed to prey on them. 

From the arctic to the tropical regions a won¬ 
derful variety of physical conditions exists, and 
an equally marvellous variety of species, and of 
physiological constitution, in all the classes 
named displays itself. The whole of the land 
and of the water, and even of the air, of these 
and of all the intermediate regions, are crammed 
full of organic existences. I will instance only 
some of the largest quadrupeds, herbivorous and 
carnivorous, on the extremes of cold and heat, 
because these could not exist in regions which 
were not replete with vegetable and animal life 
for their food. In the arctic regions we find the 
musk-ox, the rein-deer, the huge polar bear, the 
wolf, the seal, the whale, &c.; in the tropics, 
the elephant, the rhinoceros, the camel, the 
giraffe, the lion, the hippopotamus, the shark, 
&c. But Nature is by no means content with 
this wonderful adaptation of her organic crea¬ 
tion to differing physical conditions. Like the 
chicken-fancier, who keeps his fowl-yards sepa- 

M 4 


168 


ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, [Part III. 


rate, Nature seems purposely to have contrived 
different stations with similar physical conditions, 
in order to exhibit the profuseness of her crea¬ 
tive power in cramming all full of animal and 
vegetable existences, with constitutions similar 
to those of similar but separate stations, but the 
species of each similar separate station differing 
entirely from the species of all other similar 
separate stations. These stations are in general 
kept separate by what Buffon called “ natural 
barriers.” Besides the difference of climate re¬ 
sulting from difference of latitude, difference of 
altitude, and seas of water, or of sand, or of 
eternal snow, in general separate terrestrial dis¬ 
tricts. Continents, currents, difference of depth, 
saltness, freshness, or temperature of the water, 
separate aquatic districts. M. Alph. De Can¬ 
dolle, son of the great De Candolle, enumerates 
twenty-seven great nations of distinct indigenous 
aboriginal plants. That the plants and animals 
of such vast districts of stations as America and 
Australia should be different from those of 
every other part of the globe, from which they 
are so completely divided, does not strike one 
with so much astonishment as that there should 
be “ found one assemblage of species in China, 
another in the countries bordering the Black 
Sea, and a third in those surrounding the Me- 


Part III.] OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 


169 


diterranean.” Here distance and prior occu¬ 
pancy seem to take the duties of natural bar¬ 
riers. But however small, and however com¬ 
paratively modern the spot, if it be inclosed by 
natural barriers (as, for instance, St. Helena) it 
will apparently have a creation for itself. 

So in the Galapagos islands, of which there 
are ten principal islands, under the line, 600 
miles westward of America, of modern origin, 
judging from the fresh appearance of about 
2000 craters, Lyell says of them : “ Although 
each small island is not more than fifty or sixty 
miles apart, and most of them are in sight of 
each other, formed of precisely the same rock, 
rising nearly to an equal height, and placed 
under a similar climate, they are tenanted each 
by a different set of beings“Of twenty-six 
different species of land birds found in the Gala¬ 
pagos archipelago, all, with the exception of one, 
are distinct from those inhabiting other parts of 
the globe; and in other archipelagoes a single 
island sometimes contains a species found in no 
other spot on the whole earth.” Wings them¬ 
selves furnish no exception to the rule. The 
Creator hangs his cages containing distinct birds 
in distinct separate regions, though those dis¬ 
tinct separate regions may have precisely the 
same physical conditions. Lyell quotes Darwin : 


170 


ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, [Part III. 


“ The archipelago is a little world within itself. 
One is astonished at the amount of creative 
force displayed on so many small, barren, and 
rocky islands, and still more so at its diverse, 
yet analogous, action on points so near each 
other. I have said that the Galapagos archi¬ 
pelago might be called a satellite attached to 
America; but it should rather be called a group 
of satellites, physically similar, organically dis¬ 
tinct, yet intimately related to each other, 
and all related in a marked, though much lesser, 
degree to the great American continent.” 

But the plan of the Great Creator seems, in 
all time, and in all terrestrial space, to have gone 
on “ qualis ab incepto processerit; ” and as he has 
subjected individuals to death by years, so he 
has made species mortal by geological change of 
physical conditions. Nay, he has made their 
actual local habitations mortal. He has through¬ 
out all time made continents to come and to go, 
— to have a birth, life, death, and burial. He 
wields the mighty power of subterranean igneous 
action, in raising them into hypaethral existence; 
and, as if to show their nothingness in his hands, 
he redeposits them in the subaqueous regions by 
the quiet action of the rain-drop from heaven, or, 
at his will, he places his all-mighty finger on the 
mountain-top, and submerges it bodily below 


Part III.] OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 


171 


the wave. And he has always, as species died out, 
and probably continues, even at this moment, to 
originate single stocks of new plants and animals, 
which radiate from where their Creator first lo¬ 
cates them as far round as his natural barriers will 
allow them. Lyell, in expounding these opinions, 
writes: — “In almost every district, especially if 
it be mountainous, there are a variety of species 
the limits of whose habitations are conterminous, 
some being unable to proceed further without 
encountering too much heat, others too much 
cold. Individuals which are thus on the borders 
of the regions proper to their respective species 
are like the outposts of hostile armies, ready to 
profit by every slight change of circumstances in 
their favour, and to advance upon the ground 
occupied by their neighbours and opponents. 
The proximity of distinct climates produced by 
the inequalities of the earth’s surface, bring 
species possessing very different constitutions 
into such immediate contact that their naturalisa¬ 
tions are very speedy whenever opportunities of 
advancing present themselves.” Now, these op¬ 
ponents , these outposts of hostile armies , “ possess¬ 
ing very different constitutions ,” and natives of 
distinct stations , might, from their perpetual pro¬ 
pinquity, be called by physiologists “ social 
plants;” as those of the same station are called 


172 


ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, [Part III. 


-whose perpetual propinquity is caused by simi¬ 
larity of constitution , or by any of the many other 
causes of propinquity. 

This perpetual propinquity physiologists have 
attributed to the inclination of the plants each 
for the other, instead of both for the soil, or in¬ 
stead of both for the conditions of vegetable life 
existent at the spot: such as, besides those which 
have been alluded to, the degree of drought or 
humidity in the air and in the soil, the freshness 
or the brackishness of the moisture in the soil, 
the degree of light or shade, exposure, &c., &c. 
What is friendship but a name ? And physiolo¬ 
gists have been at the pains to furnish these ve¬ 
getable friends with a name from a dead lan¬ 
guage ( 'plantce sociales ), for fear their living 
disciples should not understand a name from 
their own language. 

Notwithstanding this care, however, Lyell 
actually has mistaken the physiological meaning 
of “ social plants: ” he makes it to be plants of the 
same species which live together in communities , as 
heaths. But it means plants of different species or 
genera which live together in amity , as beech and 
holly. Physiologists even give us the reason of 
their affection; though it is but a cupboard-love, 
that which “expedivit Psittaco suum^aips venter .” 


Part III.] OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 


173 


In reference to this, Richard writes: — “This 
unctuous matter was the product of a kind of 
excretion performed by the roots. To this 
matter, which, as we have said, is different in 
different species of plants, the sympathies and 
antipathies which certain plants have towards 
each other have been attributed. It is well 
known, in fact, that certain plants have, as it 
were, a kind of liking to each other, and con¬ 
stantly live together. These are named social 
plants.” 

And again: “ Roots also excrete, by their 
slender extremities , certain fluids, which are in¬ 
jurious or useful to the plants which grow in 
their vicinity; and in this manner the likings 
and antipathies of certain plants may be ac¬ 
counted for.” 

In any branch of science other than vegetable 
physiology it would be considered a mechanical 
difficulty to pass the two contrary currents of 
absorption and excretion through the same ca¬ 
pillary tubes of the “ slender extremities,” to 
say nothing of the chemical difficulty of passing 
the food and poison through the same conduits. 
But what nonsense can be too nonsensical for 
vegetable physiologists! 

De Candolle, Liebig, &c. believe that each 


174 


ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, [Part III- 


planta socialis assists and is assisted by bis 
fellow planta socialis; that there is, as Liebig 
expresses it, “ a mutual interchange of nutri¬ 
ment between the plantsthat each battens 
on his neighbour’s excretions; and that each is 
relieved by his neighbour from his own, to him¬ 
self, poisonous excretions, in which an all-wise 
Providence has thought fit to envelope the roots 
of every vegetable. When will these great the¬ 
orists persuade practical farmers to sow social 
plants with their crops, or even not to eradicate 
these social intruders ? Charlock has sworn an 
eternal friendship with turnips. The poppy and 
cornflower with corn-crops. Practical farmers 
nip all this vegetable affection in the bud, and 
forbid their crops the society of any followers or 
strangers whatever; though, alas! how often, 
like the parents of Pyramus and Thisbe, “vetuere 
quod non potuere vet are.” In this case the 
crops and the weeds ripen their seeds simul¬ 
taneously (which is one constant cause of pro¬ 
pinquity, or sociability, in cultivated annuals); 
and as they are threshed and re-sown by our 
own hands, their re-union is certainly not ef¬ 
fected by any choice of theirs. But ask the 
farmer if these social plants benefit his crops, 
and ask the physiologist how clean crops and 


Part III.] OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 


175 


other asocial plants clear their roots of their 
own poisonous excretions. But these are cases 
of ephemeral or annual illicit love in a state of 
civilisation, where it is notorious that the course 
of this passion never did run smooth. In a state 
of nature, where it does not stand upon consent 
of friends, the holly and the beech are a pair, 
and are supposed to have a mutual perennial 
affection one for the other. This is from the 
holly bearing shade better than other plants. 
Under very dense beech woods holly will grow 
even where the seedlings of the beech themselves 
cannot exist. “ Densas” is Virgil’s epithet for 
beeches, and they will grow nearer to each other, 
and produce a more intense shade, than perhaps 
any other tree in nature ; so that sometimes the 
silver supports of the green canopy stand with¬ 
out a leaf to interfere with their beauty. Cold, 
smooth-barked trees, like beech, drip from con¬ 
densation much more than others. Yet I know 
not why the pure water of heaven, when con¬ 
densed by such an alembic, should not nourish 
rather than destroy the growth it falls on. 
If drip is poisonous, as is commonly believed, it 
should choke, not feed, Roget’s circle of capil¬ 
lary stomata; and I cannot attribute the dele¬ 
terious quality of the over-growth of beech to 


Sociability of 
holly and beech 
owing to holly 
bearing shade 
better than 
other plants. 


176 


ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, [Part III. 


anything but its greater density of shade. Phy¬ 
siologists, indeed (if we include the poison of 
the drip), arm this beautiful gem of the chalk 
with a triple poisoning power. For, while they 
do not except it from the general power of poi¬ 
soning itself, inherent, according to them, in the 
roots of all vegetables, they give the excretions 
of the roots of the beech the particular power to 
poison all other vegetation whatever, except the 
holly; while, mirabile dictu! to the holly these 
poisonous excretions are wholesome food. But 
that the beautiful nakedness beneath the beech 
is not caused by its poisoning the ground, is 
apparent from the fact, that when the shade is 
removed, that is, when the beech woods are 
felled and the ground re-planted directly, all 
sorts of trees grow on it luxuriantly, even when 
the roots of the beech have not been grubbed. 
Yet, on the supposition that roots excrete, the 
ground must have been saturated with these ex¬ 
cretions for centuries, perhaps for many thou¬ 
sands of years. This fact may be seen exempli¬ 
fied at this present moment (1853) in Lipping 
wood and West wood, in the neighbourhood of 
West Meon, in Hampshire. The forest between 
Meon and Proutesflod (Privet) bore the name of 
Westan wudu, as parts of it still bear the name 


Part III.] OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH ? 


177 


of West wood, and doubtless acquired this name 
as being the west end of the Saxon Andredes 
weald, which succeeded to the Roman Anderida 
Silva, and the ancient British Andred. This 
forest extended, on the west, from the north 
and south of the vale of the Meons* to the coast 
east of the Roman Anderida, or Saxon Andre- 
desceaster, whether this is taken as Pevensey in 
Sussex, or as Newenden in Kent. And Andre¬ 
des weald still gives the name to a great part of 
Sussex and of Kent; and, singularly enough, it 
furnishes a European name to geological strata 
extending from Wardour, in Dorsetshire, to the 
chalk border of the Paris basin. The self-sown 
trees of the woods in this neighbourhood are 
probably the lineal descendants of the trees of 
Westan-wudu, that is, of Anderida Silva; but 
the ancestors of these trees, for ages before Ro¬ 
man foot ever trod British ground, doubtless 
sheltered the Druidical worshipper of the Hea- 

* The nameless stream which rises above East Meon 
flows through West Meon, Meon Stoke, and falls into the 
Southampton water near Mean. Were its banks inhabited 
by the Roman Meanvari, and the Saxon Meonware ? An¬ 
dred signified, uninhabited . Meon is the Hebrew and Phoe¬ 
nician word for habitation or village. Thus, Baal-meon is 
the habitation of Baal, or the Sun; Britannia, from two 
Phoenician words signifying the land of tin, included all the 
south of England. 

N 


178 


ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, [Part III. 


venly Host: and the ancestors of these trees, 
again, have probably held this ground ever since 
the cretaceous bed of the ocean was upheaved 
by the fiat of the Almighty, and transformed 
into chalk hill-tops; that is (though such huge 
spaces of time are as undatable as eternity), pos¬ 
sibly from about the time that the Pyrenees and 
the Jura began to sprout, and to change from 
subaqueous, horizontal, alluvial flats into hy- 
psethral precipices and mountain-ridges. 

These suppositions are at least as probable 
as the generality of physiological suppositions , 
though that is not saying much for them. But 

“ I ’ll believe both: 

And what doth else want credit, come to me, 

And I’ll be sworn ’tis true 

and, believing both historically and physiologi¬ 
cally, the ground may be supposed to have been 
accumulating poison for all vegetation save the 
holly, for myriads of years previous to the crea¬ 
tion of man, instead of the poor centuries and 
thousands of years which I have mentioned. 
Yet nothing can be more flourishing than the 
mixed plantations where the beeches of West 
wood and Lipping wood stood ; and the self- 
sown grass grows with extraordinary luxuriance 
where the beeches have been cut, but not a 


Part III.] OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 


179 


single blade under those which remain standing. 
Drip versus shade may be urged as having been 
the deleterious cause here, but excretion cannot. 
The only larches I know in England more than 
half a century old, which have never shown a 
symptom of foxy blight, are a plantation in this 
neighbourhood, which succeeded immediately 
the felling of an old, perhaps primaeval,^beech 
wood, on a thin staple over chalk. On that 
part of the site of the old beech wood next the 
larch, a new self-sown beech wood, mixed with 
ash and oak, has sprung up, which is equally 
flourishing with the larch. 

In fact, the soil of woods is not impoverished 
by their luxuriant growth, or by the quantity 
of material taken from them by man, nor is it 
poisoned by excretions from the roots, even of 
beech-trees; but, on the contrary, when woods 
are grubbed, the soil is much richer, either for 
the growth of trees, or of farm produce, than 
the surrounding ground. Probably the main 
cause of this is, that the roots protect the ground 
from aqueous denudation, and allow a greater 
accumulation of soil, formed by disintegration 
and by vegetable chemistry. At the risk of 
being hooted at, I will, however, suggest another 
possible cause. 


The soil of 
woods does not 
become poorer, 
but richer. 


Is there any 
other cause for 
this besides pro¬ 
tection by the 
roots from 
aqueous denu¬ 
dation ? 


180 


ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, [Part III 


I think that there is an aerial denudation, as 
well as an aqueous denudation, and an aerial 
deposit, as well as an aqueous deposit; and 
that woods are not only free from the aerial 
denudation, but are favoured receptacles for the 
aerial deposit: and that these circumstances 
more than compensate woods even for the crops 
taken from them by man. Carnivorous animals 
prey on the herbivorous, but the longest-lived 
animals and plants die, and their hardest parts 
decay; so that, on the average, the entire mass 
of a year’s growth of all terrestrial vegetation 
may be considered as taken annually from below 
the surface, and annually deposited afresh above 
the surface. Much of the organic or combus¬ 
tible part of this growth goes into the atmosphere 
in the form of gases, to be returned again to the 
earth in rain. Of the inorganic or incombus¬ 
tible part, or what would be the ashes of animals 
and plants if burnt, much is washed into the 
earth by rain, much ploughed in as manure, 
much washed into the sea with other soil. But, 
doubtless, much of this extremely “ finely 
divided matter ” is transported by wind : and 
although, in bulk, this aerial deposit is a joke 
to aqueous deposit, its fertilising qualities are 
great ; and as woods catch a great quantity of 


Part III.] OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH ? 


181 


it, by comparison, they are enriched, while sur¬ 
rounding lands are denuded, even supposing 
aqueous denudation and deposit the same in 
both. So, in dry windy weather, when culti¬ 
vated lands are thoroughly cleansed, and broken 
finely for sowing, great quantities, even of soil , 
change places by wind, by which exposed spots 
are impoverished, and sheltered spots enriched. 

This denudation is visible; so is the deposit of 
leaves. There are spots on which leaves are 
never allowed to rest, and others which every 
year catch large quantities. Ponds fill up even 
in man’s short existence, and must be emptied 
if they are intended to serve as ponds. This 
happens whether ponds have a run of a stream 
through them, or a run of rain into them, or no 
run at all into them. In the last case aerial 
deposit will fill them, chiefly with leaves. But 
in all cases aerial deposit forms a great item in 
filling ponds. 

For the rest, my aerial fancy will be voted 
incredible, because it is invisible. Yet great 
effects come from causes which are not very 
visible; and some people would stare (and 
among them, perhaps, Professor Sedgwick), if 
you told them that the top of the same Hamp¬ 
shire hill is on one side moving to the German 


Aqueous denu¬ 
dation is uni¬ 
versal, and is 
not confined 
only to the 
lines of torrents 
and rivers. 


182 


ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, [Part III. 


Ocean through the medium of the Thames, and 
on the other side to the English Channel by the 
Itchen. Yet from all sides of the tops of these 
hills, and from all sides of every height on the 
globe, there are dry river beds , down which soil 
flows whenever rain is heavy enough to run: 
and all the infinite ramifications of these dry 
rivers , or ravines, or gorges, or gullets, or combs, 
or chines, or bottoms, or vales, or dales, or deans, 
or lavants (qu. from labens ), by whatever name 
they or any parts of them are locally called, all 
have descents graduated by water, and outlets 
to the running rivers (if not to the sea), with¬ 
out any abrupt junction of the lower ends of the 
dry valleys with the upper ends of the river val¬ 
leys ; and no drop of rain runs an inch on the 
surface of the earth without, as far as it goes, 
setting some soil forward on its road to the sea. 
And it won’t run back again. No return tickets 
are given. It will wait there, and go on by the 
n ex-t-rain. The very soil on which we tread, 
and which we cultivate, may be said to be on 
its road from the hill to the sea. This is no 
new doctrine. Lyell quotes Pythagoras for it, 
through the medium of Ovid — 

“ Eluvie mons est deductus in aequor.” 

Soil, which is the disintegration or detritus of 
rocks (I use the term rocks in the wide, geo- 


Part III.] OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 


183 


logical sense), is in perpetual formation over the 
whole surface of the earth; and from the whole 
surface of the earth it is in perpetual movement, 
by the wash of rain, to the bottom of the sea. 

In opposition to Professor Sedgwick’s opi¬ 
nions, that “ Torrents and rivers act upon lines 
only ,” while vegetable growth and deposit are 
universal, the area of aqueous denudation, or 
the wash of rain water, which is carried off by 
rivers, is still more universal than the area of 
vegetation. The disintegration of the barest 
rocks, of the barest mountain-ridges, beyond 
the pale of vegetation, is washed by rain to the 
plant-clothed hill-side below. Nay, even from 
the mountain-top clad with eternal snow, the 
descent of this en masse , the avalanche, and the 
glacier, bring down d4bris with them to be dis¬ 
integrated below. Indeed, glaciers bring their 
huge quota ready-ground for exportation; and 
if my admiration and reverence for the great 
master would allow me, I should say that Lyell 
made an error in admitting this vast error of 
the Professor’s; that is (though Lyell controverts 
Sedgwick’s opinions), in allowing the expression 
which I have marked to pass current. Nay, as 
regards the formation of valleys, I would actually 
impugn some favourite doctrines of the great 

N 4 


184 


ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, [Part III. 


Lyell himself, though the doing so I feel to be 
as audacious a sacrilege as if I were to attack an 
astronomical opinion of Newton’s. 

It is true that the direct action in waste and 
denudation of torrents and rivers is on lines 
only: and were it not for the lateral wash of 
rain, this their direct action would only cut 
ravines and channels to the sea; that is, where 
a spring issues high up the rocky mountain-side 
it will cut a deep ravine, and the deeper it cuts, 
the more springs it will lay open. But what 
widens this ravine into a broad valley with gently 
sloping sides ? The lateral wash of rain into the 
longitudinal valley. 

And what forms the broad valley even where 
there is no river at the bottom ? or within many 
miles? The longitudinal scooping power of the 
concentrated rush of rain which in no respect 
differs from that of the torrent, except in its 
being a hundredfold more powerful than the 
torrent. It is indeed intermittent: so is the real 
scooping force of the torrent; for torrents only 
really excavate when swollen by rain. A torrent 
swollen by rain to perhaps twenty times the 
volume of its usual spring water, and hurling 
fragments of rocks along of all sizes, is in point of 
excavating and destructive power as much more 


Part III.] OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 

formidable than its usual self, as a shotted gun is 
more formidable than an unshotted gun. We 
never see the clear torrent set its rocky ammuni¬ 
tion in movement, though the shape of this ammu¬ 
nition tells us how often, and for what distances, 
it has been projected. But when the torrent is 
turbid with the wash of rain, we can hear its huge 
cannon balls rattling down, and grinding each 
other and their rocky bed and banks till what has 
started from the mountain’s brow as a huge rock 
arrives at the sea in the form of pebbles, or of 
sand. For although, as the flood of rain subsides, 
the flow of boulder-stones ceases, this is only for 
a time: each rain sets them on a stage on their 
journey, as, in lower levels and gentler gradients, 
I have said of soil, and the more minute par¬ 
ticles formed by disintegration and vegetable 
chemistry. 

A very slight difference in hardness of surface, 
or thickness of vegetation, at the brow of the hill 
may concentrate the wash of rain into a stream; 
this forms a channel, which is fed by rain from 
its sides. And though all possible natural acci¬ 
dents of this sort might have been supposed to 
have taken place long ago in all but volcanic, or 
newly raised regions, Lyell, quoting Sir T. D. 
Lander’s account of the great floods in Moray- 


186 ' 


ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, [Part III. 


shire, August, 1829, says: “ Some new ravines 
were formed on the sides of mountains where no 
streams had previously flowed*, and ancient river 
channels which had never been filled from time 
immemorial gave passage to a copious flood.” 

And again, Lyell, in giving an account of the 
formation of new ravines by heavy rains on the 
28th of August, 1826, in the White Mountains 
in New Hampshire, says: “ The natural excava¬ 
tions commenced generally in a trench a few 
yards in depth, and a few rods in width, and 
descended the mountains, widening and deepen¬ 
ing till they became vast chasms.” This was the 
effect of one continuous heavy rain. 

And in the present day we may see ravines 
begun by the accidental results of many opera¬ 
tions of man . A hedge or ditch, a pathway, or 
waggon way may commence the furrow on the 
mountain’s brow, nay, even on downs which are 
covered with the closest greensward: and how 
many of our byeroads and lanes become ravines! 

Indeed, as the long conduits whose gradients 
are laid by the wash of rain, very generally 
become the roads or lines of traffic of man, so, 
vice versa , the roads or lines of traffic of man, on 

* “ Quodque fuit campus, vallem decursus aquarum 
Fecit.” 


Part III.] OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH ? 


187 


or near declivities, very generally become con¬ 
duits' for the wash of rain. Hence our “ sunk 
lanes ” and “ sunk roads.” Without great care, 
this jinking of the road, as compared with the 
ground through which it goes, will continue even 
after the road is gravelled or stoned; because, 
in proportion as the surface of declivities is hard 
and imporous, the wash of rain and its power 
accumulate. So that, although declivities whose 
surfaces are soft are from this reason more 
easily abraded,—by their porousness, which is 
generally a consequence of their softness, they are 
to a certain extent protected from denudation. 

The deposit from the wash of rain on each 
side of all level roads is soon covered with 
growth; it then also catches the dust or deposit 
from the air, and, unless the pickaxe and shovel 
are constantly at work, the drainage of a road is 
soon choked up. 

As long as the sea or a river acts on the foot 
of a cliff, it remains a precipice, for the under¬ 
mining water acts more rapidly than disintegra¬ 
tion and wash , and clears away all that falls. 
Abstract this power, and the cliff has a ten¬ 
dency to conform to the slope, that is, to the 
wash of the hill above it, both at its brow and at 
its foot. For what is washed down the hill and 


188 


ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, [Part III. 

off its brow will lie at the foot of the cliff as a 
talus or shelving bank; and what was the mid 
cliff gradually becomes the sole cliff. But this 
will eventually disappear into one slope. If the 
top of the cliff is table-land, or slopes from it, 
the cliff will waste much more slowly by disinte¬ 
gration, and the action of the elements. But sup¬ 
posing such a cliff to be all of the same material, 
I think the brow has a tendency to disappear 
most quickly, possibly from a freer access and 
action of rain water in disintegration, and pos¬ 
sibly also from roots inserting themselves in cre¬ 
vices, and, by turgescence, detaching blocks bo¬ 
dily. Independently of porousness , volcanic cones 
are unlikely to have ravines or gulleys, since 
their shape tends to diffuse, instead of to con¬ 
centrate, any run of water. In fact, the ten¬ 
dency of disintegration and the wash of rain 
would be to form cones out of single hills, and 
ridges out of chains of hills, with projecting 
spurs, each spur being itself a ridge, ending in 
a half-cone : and even these ridges are so 
studded with cones as to have a serrated or saw¬ 
like outline, and to have earned the modern 
Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian name of sierra, 
or serra, and to have originated the Latin ex¬ 
pression of per juga montium ; the very name 


Part III.] OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 


189 


of hills being taken from the yoke-like appear¬ 
ance of contiguous cones. 

For this reason, though, as Sir Humphrey 
Davy finely remarks, no work of a mortal can 
be immortal, those works of man which ap¬ 
proach nearest to immortality are cones,—the py¬ 
ramid, the tumulus, and the cairn. Why do 
the imber edax and the fuga temporwn pass 
with so light a touch over these ? Because they 
begin with a form which others end in,—a form 
which is not deformed even by disintegration 
and the wash of rain. 

In comparison to the broad waste from the 
wash of rain, the waste by the direct action of 
rivers may be reckoned as nothing; and even 
this waste by the direct action of rivers takes 
place, I might say, entirely when they are 
flooded by rain. The real main geological work 
of rivers is indirect; that is, the carrying off the 
traffic brought to them by the wash of rains : 
and they carry this mighty traffic for the entire 
terrestrial surface of the globe; at least, their 
channels do. 

And the channels of most rivers would exist 
whether the rivers existed or not, as in the 
south you constantly see river beds dry, or al¬ 
most dry, except when filled by the superficial 


190 


ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, [Part III. 


run of rain, or the thawing of mountain snow; 
and the size of the channels of all torrents and 
rivers (except in alluvial parts, for a reason 
which will be given) is in proportion to the 
heavy floods of rain which occasionally rush 
through them, not to the comparatively small 
volume of spring water which always flows 
down them. 

Lyell, quoting Mr. Everest, calculates that in 
the rainy season (four months) the Ganges dis¬ 
charges into the sea a weight of earth equal to 
fifty-six great Pyramids ; and in the other eight 
months only the weight of four Pyramids. Now, 
if Professor Sedgwick will only grant us these 
four Pyramids for the snows of the Himalaya, 
we shall have an annual superficial wash of soil 
amounting in weight to sixty Pyramids. This 
is the ordinary and annual work resulting from 
the operation of ordinary and annual rains on 
one river basin. But how many extraordinary 
floods, the result of extraordinary rains, have 
passed over the Ganges ! 

Does Professor Sedgwick think that all this 
soil comes every year from the erosion of the 
banks of the Ganges, or even from the valley 
of the Ganges ? If it did, the valley of the 
Ganges would soon be barer of soil than its de- 


Part III.] OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH ? 


191 


clivities. The soil comes from a great part of all 
the tops, and from all the sides, of all the de¬ 
clivities of all the myriads of valle}^s ramifying 
from all the tributary valleys of the valley of 
the Ganges; and what has passed into the sea 
in the formation of the valley is a mere nothing 
to what has passed down the valley, and does 
now pass down it, from the denudation of these 
infinitely extended surfaces by rain. In the 
rainy season there is, perhaps, a body of surface 
water which flows down the vale to the sea in 
volume fifteen times as great as the spring water ; 
and were every spring of the Ganges permanently 
dried up, the vale would still be flooded every 
year by a stream in volume only less by a fif¬ 
teenth part than that which flows every rainy 
season now, and fourteen times greater than 
that which flows in the three hot months. 

Denudation by rain extends over the whole 
space of the earth. Its pace will be modified, 
hastened, retarded, or partially stopped, by a 
thousand such circumstances as comparative 
hardness of surface, porousness, levelness, vege¬ 
tation, heaviness of rain, &c. &c. Over vast 
tracts denudation by rain is so slow as to be 
quite inappreciable. Still there is, perhaps, 
scarcely any place in nature where excessive, 


192 


ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, [Part III 


continued rain will not run; and this run will 
be discoloured. This discolouration will be from 
soil; and this soil will be deposited where the 
rain ceases to run. 

Even where the*overflow of a river stands and 
deposits, that deposit may be subject to denu¬ 
dation from local rain after the river, or rather 
the flood, has subsided; though the deposit of 
the river may be annually in excess, and accu¬ 
mulation of soil may result, as in all alluvial 
valleys. 

But the chief thing which diminishes and re¬ 
tards the effect of the wash of rain is the very 
force of the cause. This force, speaking libe¬ 
rally, has thrown the whole surface of the earth 
into ridge and furrow, into these graduated 
vales sloping to the sea; so that all the broad 
superficial runs of this wash are shortened , and 
are made lateral , into these longitudinal channels. 
We shape our roads high in the middle on this 
principle, to throw the rain off on each side with 
the shortest possible run into the ditch or 
gutter, and to prevent a wash along the road, 
which would otherwise soon wash our artificial 
road away. Were it otherwise in nature, were 
there one plane descent from the tops of all the 
hills and mountains, the volume of the super- 


Part III.] OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH ? 


19a 


ficial wash of rain, increasing as it descended, 
would many times in the year desolate the 
whole of the lower parts of the hills and moun¬ 
tains ; and the lower parts of the hill-sides 
would have less soil than the upper parts. The 
channels of torrents and rivers prevent this 
effect now; they are nature’s ditches and gut¬ 
ters : so that, in this light, rivers may be re¬ 
garded as a conservative, not a destructive 
power. But rivers are mere labourers, or acces¬ 
sories, in the affair. The wash of rain is the en¬ 
gineer which has laid down the gradients of 
this preventive surface-drainage over the entire 
area of the earth. The source of the valley is 
always much higher up than the source of the 
river; I mean, than the spring source of the 
river: for the snow source or glacier source, 
being both superficial sources, I consider the 
same as the rain source of the valley. The river 
has no power of making a valley above it; but 
a torrent of rain water has the power of scoop¬ 
ing a valley below it. Even on Salisbury plain , 
which is comparatively flat and covered with the 
closest greensward, these dry valleys, or rather 
continuations of valleys, above the heads of 
rivers exist: and that the cause which caused 
them still works may be argued from the valleys 


o 


194 


ABE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, [Part III. 

being richer in soil than the tops or sides of the 
hills, owing to the gentle gradients of the bot¬ 
toms of the valleys; for, other things the same, 
that is, in the same strata, with the same vege¬ 
tation, &c., one universal result of the wash of 
rain is, that the degree of denudation of soil will 
be directly as steepness. 

Some of these dry valleys have an almost im¬ 
perceptible slope; and they might be perfectly 
level, and yet be regular channels for the wash 
of periodical heavy rains. For if water can get 
out at one end of a level channel, and cannot get 
out at the other end or at the sides, it not only 
will, but must , get out where it can — 

“ Unda impellitur unda 

Urgueturque prior venienti, urguetque priorem;” 

and it will carry with it much of the finer soil 
formed by disintegration and vegetation. 

When these chalky downs are ploughed up, 
the brow of the hill shows light, and the soil 
darkens in descending. If this is not from the 
wash of rain, what is it from ? If it is, the wash 
of rain must be considered as a very universal 
agent. 

The lateral wash of rain acts constantly to fill 
valleys. The longitudinal scooping force of rain 
and the run of rivers constantly counteract this. 


Part III.] OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH ? 

But in this continual contest, by comparison 
with their adjacents, the “lines” of rivers and 
valleys are far from being denuded. On the 
contrary, they are the favoured receptacles, the 
permanent, rich reservoirs of soil. But, accord¬ 
ing to Professor Sedgwick, they ought to be the 
denuded parts. 

This universal portage of soil by rain, the eternal 
effect of eternal causes, which in huge spaces of 
time results in such vast geological changes, 
would to some be incredible were it invisible. 
But this I think may be made visible, oculis 
jidelibus . It may be seen wherever a fence runs 
horizontally along the side of a hill. A terrace 
is then formed, for aqueous denudation goes on 
below the fence, and in chalk countries the 
ground becomes white; and not only does aque¬ 
ous denudation cease above the fence, but aque¬ 
ous deposit takes place, and the good soil which 
was on its way to the valley is arrested. Even 
a slight dead wattle, if kept up, will produce 
this effect, and, though the hedge is dead, the 
ground on which it is placed will grow; and a 
gateway wrongly placed will often let consider¬ 
able quantities of this collection of the best soil 
escape, which might otherwise have accumulated 
for what man might call for ever. So an inju- 


196 


ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, [Part III. 


dicious, down-hill waggon-way, across fields, will 
sometimes act as a channel, and, catching soil 
laterally, convey it away from its proper owner. 
If your neighbour’s land lies below you on a 
steep hill-side, unless you wish to make him a 
present of your soil, pound it back on to your 
own land by a fence, and, when it accumulates 
against your own fence, cart it up the hill again. 

The beautiful terracing of the hill-side, whieh 
we see in southern mountain cultivation, origi¬ 
nates in the necessity of catching the stream of 
soil from above, and preventing its farther de¬ 
scent to the valley below, down which it would 
be washed, whether it were a dry valley or a 
river valley. 

In unusually heavy rains numbers of these 
terrace walls give way; and when a terrace goes 
which is high up the hill-side, a sort of earthen 
avalanche takes place, bearing crops, soil, and 
stone walls in succession to the vale below. 

In these works man shows himself as a strong 
• conservative . In alluding to man as a leveller , 
our great geologist admirably remarks: “ By 
ploughing up thousands of square miles, and ex¬ 
posing a surface for part of the year to the ac¬ 
tion of the elements, we assist the abrading force 
of rain, and diminish the conservative effects of 


Part III.] OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH ? 


197 


vegetationand by fencing these thousands of 
square miles, man acts as a very universal con¬ 
servative. 

The existence of upper valleys, or dry rivers 
of soil, proves that, were there no such things as 
rivers on the globe, the scooping power of rain 
would still give the same alternation of hills 
with valleys sloping to the sea which now ob¬ 
tains, and the same waste and denudation from 
lateral wash would still take place. The river 
only makes its own channel (which is much en¬ 
larged by rain floods), and in that channel as¬ 
sists in conveying away the denudation brought 
to it by rain, which would otherwise travel more 
slowly along the valley, and out of the valley, by 
the same force which brought it into the valley, 
—rain. 

I believe that in many cases where the country 
is composed of soft and porous materials, as 
chalk, the depth of the valleys and channels 
scooped out by rain lays open the springs, and 
forms the rivers, instead of the rivers forming 
the valleys. How many dry valleys are there 
sloping to the sea without having laid open a 
spring, and therefore without any stream ? And 
what formed these valleys ? How many lateral 

o 3 


198 


ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, [Part III. 


or branch dry valleys are there falling into the 
main longitudinal dry valley whose lower end 
joins the upper end of the river valley ? And 
how many lateral or branch dry valleys fall into 
the main river valley ? And what formed these 
countless myriads of dry valleys ? 

These valleys exist even in volcanic countries, 
where the sea could not have formed them while 
the land was emerging; and the gradients of 
the river valleys and dry valleys, and the whole 
form of the ridges and furrows, of the entire sur¬ 
face-drainage of a volcanic region (say, of Ma¬ 
deira) are so precisely the same as those of any 
other mountainous district, that no eye can 
glance over the two and doubt for an instant 
that the same cause caused the form of the 
drainage of both. 

In fact, rain, which we consider only as a pro¬ 
ductive power, is the destroyer, the dissolver, of 
continents. Subterranean igneous action, which 
we consider only as a destructive power, is the 
producer, the replacer, of continents. And 
the cause which caused the valleys is in as full 
operation at this moment as ever it was. Indeed, 
valleys only exist in the dissolution of hills; 
that is, in the gradual and eternal wash by rain 
of the existent earth into the sea. 


Part III.] OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH ? 


199 


“ R-esolutaque tellus 
In liquidas rorescit aquas,” 

and 

“ Tellus glomerata cogitur unda,” 

are as true at this instant as in the time of Py¬ 
thagoras, or as they have been and will be, shall 
I say ? evermore. 

But in reference to the marine theory in 
general, that the action of waves on land 
slowly emerging from the deep should have 
a tendency to wash away soft parts and to 
leave hard parts, I can conceive: but to attri¬ 
bute the formation of our valleys to this cause, 
as Lyell does, is to suppose that the materials of 
all the valleys running from the tops of all the 
heights on the globe were originally softer than 
the materials of the intervening ridges; but in 
almost all cases we can see that this is not so, by 
the corresponding strata on the opposite sides of 
valleys. 

In regard to currents: a current might de¬ 
capitate a continent as it rose, supposing equal 
softness of materials, or it might scoop a hori¬ 
zontal groove of any size or depth, or (granting 
lines of hard intervening ridges) many grooves; 
but they must all be horizontal, and in one di¬ 
rection. No marine current could make a single 

o 4 


200 


ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, [Part III. 

channel sloping from a height to the sea; still 
less the myriads on myriads of dry upper valleys 
which ramify in all directions, from all river 
valleys through and to all sides of the tops of all 
elevations, whether high or low. 

But, in fact, the action of the sea impedes the 
formation of valleys, instead of making them. 
The sea often beats back, in the form of a bar, 
what the operation of rain on rivers forces into 
it; and valleys often form land in the sea, in¬ 
stead of the sea forming valleys in the land. 
The delta of the Ganges stretches 220 miles into 
the sea, with a base of 200 miles. The Missis¬ 
sippi has pushed a delta fifty miles out into the 
sea, with an area of 14,000 square miles; yet 
so far is it from “ acting on lines” in erodmg its 
banks, that at New Orleans it is less than half a 
mile wide: and it may be said to act on lines 
in building its banks, for it has raised its own 
banks above the land they pass through, and in¬ 
creases the area of its alluvial plain at the upper 
end and sides, as well as the depth of it. 

These effects are owing to the increase of the 
delta; and the same cause has produced the 
same effects in the valley of the Nile: for the 
lengthening of the delta lengthens the channel 
of the river with it; but the sea (leaving out 
the effect of the tide) tends to keep the surface 


Part III.] OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 


201 


of the river always at a dead level. Now a river 
flowing for 200 miles, or even fifty miles, or one 
mile at a dead level, is very ill-calculated to dis¬ 
charge the floods poured into it in the rainy sea¬ 
sons from inclined channels. The consequence 
is ponding back, overflow, and deposit from the 
overflow: but the banks, catching the first and 
heaviest deposit, grow more quickly than the 
plain, and the last yard protruded at the level of 
the sea, by preventing the spreading of the 
water, tends to force it over the yard behind it, 
and to raise that yard above the level of the sea; 
and so every yard raises the yard behind it, in 
succession, to the highest point of the alluvial 
plain ; though in any part, and particularly in 
the higher part, the growth of the plain may 
(from excess of the longitudinal over the lateral 
deposit) keep pace with the growth of the banks, 
—and possibly banks thus built may tend to as¬ 
sume that slope or gradient lengthwise which, 
when flooded, would allow the water to escape 
sideways at the same instant, and at the same 
depth, everywhere. 

And this tendency to a gentle simultaneous 
overflow of the whole banks prevents their ero¬ 
sion and the enlargement of the channel in the 
flood season, and, I think, is the reason of the 
small size of the channels of rivers in alluvial 


202 


ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, [Part III. 


plains compared with the unduly large size of 
the channels of their upper parts, or of torrents. 

Lyell tells us that, from the sea to the upper 
end of the alluvial plain of the Mississippi (800 
miles, including the delta) there is a rise of 
three inches in a mile, amounting to 200 feet. I 
imagine that this rise is the effect of the ad¬ 
vance of the delta, and that, as the delta con¬ 
tinues to advance, the rise will increase. In this 
light, seas as well as rivers may be considered as 
filling valleys, as well as excavating them. 

The steeper the slope and the more rapid the 
stream, the straighter. It is in the alluvial part 
that the river winds, and shifts its course. But 
u erosion of banks” and “ acting on lines” must 
not be claimed from these changes; for, besides 
that the river fills up the old course which it has 
left, in the change it only takes what it had be¬ 
fore deposited, and had brought from a distance. 

The Adriatic is filling up from its tributary 
valleys, and 100,000 years may see it an alluvial 
plain, the Po running through it, and falling 
into the Mediterranean. 

In this case, would the alluvial plain be at a 
dead level, or would it slope ? I think it would 
slope from the head of the Adriatic to the Me¬ 
diterranean. If so, as the level of the sea would 


Part III.] OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 


203 


prevent a fall , it must rise from the Mediter¬ 
ranean to the present mouth of the Po. This 
rise, at three inches a mile, would be considerable. 
Nor would it stop there. It would be continued 
up the course of the river to where its natural 
bed is above this gradient. If this is true, 
those who have undertaken to embank the Po 
and the Adige are longi laboris damnati. 

Indeed, in principle , it is impossible, under 
any circumstances, that strata deposited by 
moving water from materials held in suspension 
should be absolutely horizontal. They must die 
out in the direction in which the water moves; 
although to almost all practical intents they gene¬ 
rally may be reckoned horizontal, that is, reckon¬ 
ing time and space humanly . Geologically , the 
effect of this slight difference between principle 
and practice, in such a basin as the Mississippi, 
may expose millions of men to the constant 
chance of death to themselves and destruction to 
their property from inundation, with the cer¬ 
tainty that their actual estates are in process of 
becoming subterranean, and themselves and 
their works fossil. 

I only talk of general tendencies. In such 
river basins as have been mentioned, these ope¬ 
rations are on so vast a scale, they are spread 


204 


ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, [Part III. 


over such vast spaces of space as well as of time , 
they are so liable to disorder from particular ac¬ 
cidents , such as changes of the course of the 
river, extraordinary floods, landslips, earth¬ 
quakes, subsidencies, upheavals, partial destruc¬ 
tion of deltas by the sea, &c. &c., that man, un¬ 
able to see what is or what lias taken place , can 
only speculate on what must be , or what must 
have taken place. 

The sea ends every valley, but never yet began 
one; that is, where there is no delta, when the 
river and the tides have done their utmost, it is 
the sea which prevents the farther deepening of 
the estuary. 

The force of the river, as it dies off in the sea, 
becomes as perfectly horizontal as the force of a 
marine current; and neither of them could form 
an inch of sloping valley. But where there are 
no currents to prevent it, the sea, by stopping 
the longitudinal rush of rivers, allows the de¬ 
posit of deltas, and may thus be said to prolong 
valleys. 

“ Bottle off the sea,” and all estuaries and 
their valleys will be deepened; for the tidal part 
of each river will be a torrent on the brow of a 
mountain. In this case deltas and alluviums 
would disappear ; but they would not u go with 


Part III.] OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 


205 


a run/’ or by the direct action of rivers. Rivers 
would only cut ravines through them ; the rest 
must wait for disintegration and the wash of 
rain. The sea forms and preserves them now. 

From the universal denudation by the wash 
of rain woods are, by comparison, free. But 
whether the catching of aerial deposit may have 
anything to do with it or not, or whether it is to 
be attributed only to the protection afforded by 
their roots against aqueous denudation, soil im¬ 
proves even in woods which are robbed by man. 

All nature teems with carbonic acid, — earth, 
ocean, air. All soils contain it absorbed from 
the atmosphere, independently of rain and of 
that generated from organic remains; and it is 
not only contained in all superficial soils, inde¬ 
pendently of vegetable remains, but it is vomited 
forth in vast quantities from below the surface 
by springs of all countries, and especially of all 
volcanic countries, as is carbonic acid gas into 
the air by active volcanoes. Nay, beside this 
air carriage and water carriage, there is a vast 
land carriage of carbonic acid from the subter¬ 
ranean regions. In many places it exhales in a 
gaseous form through the earth, disintegrating 
granite, gneiss, limestone, &c. in quantities suf¬ 
ficient to extinguish a light or the life of ani- 


206 


ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, [Part III. 


mals; nay, even to destroy plants from excess 
of this their principal food. In these forms earth 
disgorges and restores what, by aqueous deposit, 
she may be said to have previously swallowed. 
All water contains it, fresh or salt, well, spring, 
or rain. Add to this the constant enormous 
supply generated chemically in the decay of 
animal and vegetable substances, and we have 
quite enough to account for the increase of 
vegetable matter formed by the action of vege¬ 
table chemistry on sap absorbed by the roots. 

Suppose we take a mass of volcanic rock, in 
which there can be no vegetable or organic re¬ 
mains whatever, that we grind this into powder, 
and expose it to the air in an open case a foot in 
depth, whose lower part is sieve-like and equiva¬ 
lent to a porous subsoil. The powdered rock 
will be disintegrated by the action of the air and 
rain. It will also absorb carbonic acid and am¬ 
monia from the air and rain. An infinite variety 
of seeds will be brought to this soil by my pet 
aerial deposit. Very few at first will grow, on 
account of the small store of carbonic acid in 
the soil. But if they do not grow, or if they 
only partially grow, they will decay; and in 
decaying will so increase the stock of carbonic 
acid, that more plants will hereafter grow. 


Part III.] OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 


207 


Now, to prevent the effect of my aerial denuda¬ 
tion, let us bury the heads as well as the roots 
of these plants below the soil. Every such 
plant, large or small, will, in decay, become a 
hoard of carbonic acid fixed in the soil for the 
good of future plants, in addition to the annual 
supply of carbonic acid and ammonia to the soil 
from the air and from rain. The carbonic acid 
of decaying vegetation will also help the rain in 
disintegrating our powdered rock. So that ve¬ 
getation may be said to produce vegetation; 
and we may possibly see in this general tendency 
to the increase of vegetable remains a main cause 
of the formation of bogs: and perhaps aqueous 
denudation may be a necessary agent to prevent 
the undue increase of vegetable remains over 
the whole surface of the earth. 

And natural forests return to the soil all they 
take from it, and with interest; and Lyell 
should not talk of trees dying out from the soil 
having “ become exhausted for trees,” or of the 
necessity of rotation in nature’s cropping. No¬ 
tation of crops is only necessary where man robs 
the soil of the produce he has raised, or raises 
plants by cultivation such as nature could not 
raise without cultivation. 

It is perhaps probable that were wheat sown 


No necessity 
for rotation in 
nature’s crop¬ 
ping. 


208 


ARE SOILS ENRICHED, IMPOVERISHED, [Part III. 


every year on the same land, and ploughed in 
before ripening, the land would be enriched, not 
impoverished ; that is, a great increase of car¬ 
bonic acid would probably occur from vegetable 
chemistry, and a great increase of the inorganic 
constituents of plants from disintegration. In 
fact, although bearing wheat every year, the 
soil would become as rich as maiden soils 
always are. A process resembling this is what 
does go on in natural forests, in addition to 
the absence of denudation. In the case which 
Lyell mentions, of bogs formed “ by the fall of 
trees and the stagnation of water caused by their 
trunks and branches obstructing the free drain¬ 
age of the atmospheric waters, and giving rise to 
a marsh,” and “ of mosses where the trees are all 
broken within two or three feet of the original 
surface, and where their trunks all lie in the 
same direction,” it is not the trees which are dy¬ 
ing out on soils that have “ become exhausted 
for trees” which break or blow over in wind; 
but, on the contrary, the trees which break or 
blow over in wind are the rank product of a soil 
which suits them, and which grows them too 
close to have side-boughs, and consequently too 
tall for their girthing and for their circum¬ 
scribed roots. Many countries have ceased to be 


PartIIL] OR POISONED BY VEGETABLE GROWTH? 


209 


covered with forests from many different causes; 
but the last cause I should assign would be 
the soil becoming exhausted for trees. The form¬ 
ation of bogs by the over-luxuriance of woods 
may be one of these causes. I think it possible 
that, in some cases, the irruption of peat into 
woods from the bursting of bogs above them 
may have violently overthrown the trees; in 
this case the trees should all lie down the 
stream: or that the drift from above, and quiet 
deposit of alluvial peat into woods, by suffocat¬ 
ing the roots, may have killed the trees and 
caused their fall, instead of the fall of the trees 
causing the bog; but in this case it is unlikely 
that the stems should lie all one way, yet this 
is possible if the tract is only exposed to wind 
on one side. 


p 


210 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


[Part IV- 


For beauty we 
should have 
every variety 
of growth. 


Trees cannot 
attain their 
maximum 
height by na¬ 
ture—that is, 
without prun¬ 
ing. 


PART IV. 

PRUNING AND THINNING. 


Doubtless, in ornamental grounds, every variety 
of growth should be encouraged; and doubtless, 
every variety of growth can be attained by gra¬ 
dually and constantly cutting out all growth 
except in the direction required. To prove this, 
we have only to observe our wall-fruit trees, and 
the forms of animals, arches, &c. into which 
trees are cut. 

In trees, whether for beauty or profit, no 
attribute is more to be admired or desired than 
height. But it is probable that by nature, that 
is, without pruning, trees can never attain the 
maximum height of which they are capable if 
pruned. 

In the shelter of timber-woods, from want of 
room for their roots, and from want of all side- 
boughs, trees in general grow weakly, and do 
not attain their maximum height in a minimum 
time, if ever. On the other hand, single trees, 



Part IV.] 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


211 


which have plenty of room for their roots, and 
even coppice-wood trees, from exposure, or from 
the quantity of light all round them, generally 
go more to side-branches than to height; but in 
sheltered situations, with good soils, I have no 
doubt that, by early and gradual pruning, single 
trees might be trained to much greater heights 
than we see at present. 

When this was so stated in the first edition, 
an anonymous friend wrote, “ The works of God 
cannot be improved by man.” I differ. I think 
that the works of God can be improved by man. 
I think that God as much intended his works to 
be improved by man, as he intended us to im¬ 
prove ourselves. Are the glorious gifts of the 
Creator, the products of the farm, the kitchen- 
garden, and the flower-garden, not improved by 
man ? Are our domestic animals not improved 
by man ? Is the European man no better than 
the Bosjeman? If so, we give ourselves and 
children much pains for nothing. I believe that 
God has made man in general an instrument to 
perfect the terrestrial treasures of his creation, 
for man’s own advantage ; and that to some 
God has imparted the highest possible enjoy¬ 
ment in eliciting, improving , and displaying the 
p 2 


The works of 
God can be 
improved by 
man. 


212 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


[Part IV. 


To grow valua¬ 
ble timber 
maximum head 
on maximum 
height of 
branchless 
stem. 


Rules for prum 
ing for height. 


beauties of his creation, quite distinct from any 
mercenary or selfish ends of their own. 

It is true that one life will not accomplish 
much. But that we can do little is not a reason 
for doing less, or nothing at all. One year’s 
pruning, by destroying competing leaders, may 
destroy what would for ever have vitiated the 
growth of the tree. Ten years’ pruning might 
leave Nature a sketch to fill up, such as she 
could not have accomplished without the aid of 
man. Haply, also, others may take up the run¬ 
ning when we succumb. 

To grow valuable timber, we should not only 
aim at a maximum height of branchless stem, 
but a maximum head on a maximum height of 
branchless stem ; for in proportion to the 
quantity of head will be the quantity of its 
downward deposit, or increase of the girthing 
of the stem. 

For pruning trees to grow to their greatest 
possible height, the rules are simple, and they 
are applicable alike to the nursery plant and to 
the largest timber-tree : Keep a clear leader. 
Cut off all branches large enough to compete 
with the stem, or which grow parallel to it. 
Shrive the stem up one third of its height. Cut 
all close to the stem. With the above excep- 


PA.RT IV.] 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


213 


tions, a tree cannot have too many branches, 
as the returning sap of each contributes to the 
growth in girthing of all that part of the stem 
which is below it, and to the growth of the root 
both in length and girthing. But pruning, 
like thinning a plantation, cannot be too gradual. 
It should be annual. 

A well-placed but over-large branch should 
be curtailed where it turns up, or where it forks, 
or at the foot of a shoot. It is bad pruning 
to leave a dead stump with no growth beyond 
it, whose descending sap shall deposit over the 
scar. 

In timber-woods, and in plantations, the trees 
should stand close enough to discourage the 
growth of many side-boughs, or of any large 
ones. As the side-boughs are gradually and 
annually overgrown, and before they are actu¬ 
ally killed, they should be removed with a com¬ 
mon saw, set wide for the purpose ; and the 
axe and cross-cut saw should gradually and 
annually thin the plants out to greater distances 
from each other. Timber may thus be reared 
without a single disunited knot; and if we sup¬ 
pose the side-boughs to be taken off each, where 
the stem is eighteen inches in girth, without a 
symptom even of a cross-grain, at a greater 

p 3 


214 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


[Part IV« 


Plantations are 
and should be 
planted too thick 
to grow, and 
should be 
thinned every 
year. 


distance than three inches from the centre, the 
rest of the entire mass of timber will be without 
a vestige of a knot or even of a cross-grain. If 
the plants are left too close, weak poles will be 
grown ; if they are left too wide apart, too many 
and too large side-boughs will be developed. 

Supposing perfect shelter and perfect room 
together, almost all trees will make a good 
fight on almost all soils: but it may be laid 
down as a general rule that, where shelter is 
given, room is not; that plantations are always 
planted too thick to grow, and are never 
thinned; that in plantations the nurse always 
over-lies the child. It is not meant here to 
object to planting plantations too thick to grow: 
they should be planted too thick to grow, and 
then thinned, taking the worst plant worst 
placed, and leaving the best plant best placed; 
regard being had to what is likely to suit the 
soil best, and what is intended to be grown 
permanently. In this way, not only is the 
ground cropped , not only is profit made by the 
thinning, and not only are unduly large side- 
boughs discouraged, but an immense choice for 
the permanent plants is gained, and the soil, 
instead of being exhausted by such cropping, 
is enriched by it, as has been argued. 


Part IV.] 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


[ 215 


No saying is more true, than that “ fools may 
plant , but it requires a wise man to rear timber.” 

More than this, it requires a succession of wise 
men. It is extraordinary that those who by 
practice are annually convinced of the impor¬ 
tance, nay, necessity, of thinning: their turnips no turnips 

' J . . . . without hoeing; 

by hoeing, so often neglect this principle in “octrees with- 
their plantations. The principle should be prac¬ 
tised from the beginning; but if it has been 
neglected ever so long, “ sapere aude, incipe .” 

Nothing has done so much harm to plantations, 

as that “ Oh, it is too late now!” It is never too Never too late 

to thin. 

late. It can never be too late. Can it be too 
late to begin cutting out dead rubbish ? Can 
it do harm to take out what is doing harm ? 

Can the wind be let into plantations by cutting 
out denuded poles without heads ? Go into the 
plantation whose thinning has been put off till 
it is too late , and, I was going to say, boldly , but 
let us say quietly , cut out the dead and the dying 
gross cases of rubbish, and then gradually and 
annually the worst plant worst placed, leaving cut the worst 
and relieving the best plants best placed. He placed ; leave 

^ . . , .,, /, . -a the best plants 

who perseveres on these principles will (besides best placed, 
eventually creating permanent fine plantations) 
very soon, in his present thinnings, be cutting 
boards instead of bavins. 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


[Part IV. 


21G 

Do not think it a matter of no import whether 
the dead and the dying are cut or left standing. 
The absence of the dead and the dying is of the 
greatest importance to the living. The space 
occupied by dead heads, should be occupied by 
living limbs; and attenuated , dying, waving 
plants, from their locomotive power in wind, 
whip and denude their neighbours more than 
stouter plants can. 

Exposure is no excuse for not thinning plan¬ 
tations. There is no reason, because the heads 
of trees are exposed to wind, that their roots 
should be exposed to robbery from their neigh¬ 
bours and starved by their own want of head, 
resulting from the whipping of their neighbours. 
The best plants, being the tallest, have always 
borne the exposure. You do not expose them 
by cutting out the worst plants from below 
them; but you relieve them from what denudes 
their sides and robs their roots. If this opera¬ 
tion is trusted to a workman, he takes the best 
plants to sell , and leaves the weak ones to grow. 
These weak ones have always been overshadowed 
and so made tender , and when the large ones are 
withdrawn from above them, if they do not die, 
they do not grow, but remain hideous scare¬ 
crows ; then thinning gets a bad name, — <c the 


Part IV.] 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


217 


plantation has been spoilt by letting the wind 

in.” 

Thinning and pruning should work together, 
and both should be gradual and annual. By 
rearing timber moderately close from the begin¬ 
ning, increasing the distance of the trees directly 
as their size, and thus depriving the sides and 
the lower parts of the stems of light, we not 
only encourage the heads to grow upward, but 
prevent the over-growth of side-boughs. All 
side-boughs which are to be taken away, should 
be gradually sawed off before they die and 
while they are small, since the new annual 
growth over a wound is curved till it is wholly 
healed. 

All branches, though they may be said to rob 
that part of the stem which is above them, feed 
that part which is below them with their de¬ 
scending sap. The growth of branches which 
are gradually taken off from the side of a tree is 
transferred to its head; and the descending sap 
from this additional new growth of the head, 
increases the bulk in girthing of the whole long 
stem, instead of being wasted on the increase 
of side-branches. If, indeed, too many side- 
branches are taken off at once, so that the 
diminished head cannot by extra growth elabo- 


Pruning does 
not increase the 
aggregate quan¬ 
tity of wood 
made by a tree; 
but, by improv¬ 
ing its location, 
increases the 
measurable 
timber. 


218 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


[Part IV. 


Example. 


rate the whole sap sent up by the root, the whole 
tree receives a check, not only in the increase of 
bulk in girthing, but in the growth of the root, 
on account of the diminished supply of elabo¬ 
rated descending sap. Thus bad pruning may 
diminish the quantity of timber grown ; but I 
can by no means concur in Loudon’s idea that 
pruning, by increasing the quantity of timber, 
deteriorates its quality. No pruning increases 
the quantity of wood made by a tree, but only 
alters the location of it ; but the actual bulk 
of all the side-branches which are gradually 
taken off, or rather the bulk to which all those 
branches collectively would have attained, may 
be considered as laid on to that part of the stem 
which is above them, without detracting from 
the bulk of that part of the stem which is below 
them. This is the great merit which good 
pruning lays claim to. 

Suppose a nursery plant with two equal 
leaders; both are weak in comparison to the 
stem below, because each has only half the sap 
which ascends through the stem, and also each 
has only its own descending sap, while the de¬ 
scending sap of both deposits on the stem below. 
If one leader is taken off, new vigour is given to 
the other. The growth which would have been 


Part IV.] 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


219 


for ever divided, is for ever united. The two 
leaders are condensed in one, and the growth of 
the favoured one, in the bulk of its stem, is for 
ever doubled. But this twofold increase of the 
stem above the fork is no greater than the in¬ 
crease of the stem below the fork ; and the 
increase of that stem is in no way altered by the 
pruning : it only receives from one stem the 
same quantity of descending sap which it would 
have received from two. Nor is the whole 
quantity of timber produced by the tree altered, 
though it is infinitely increased in value, by 
uniting in one long stem what would have been 
divided into the branches. Throughout all 
forest pruning the same principle reigns, as has 
been exemplified in the case of the double- 
leadered nursery plant. Any argument to prove 
that the double increase of the single remaining 
leader deteriorates the quality of its wood, would 
also prove that the quality of the stem below 
the original fork is inferior to that of the two 
leaders, or that stems in general, which are the 
receptacles of the aggregate descending sap of 
the branches, are inferior in quality to the 
branches. 

As an example of what may by accident 
happen to multiply leaders in the growth of 


220 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


[Part IV. 


forest-trees, I will instance what does happen, 
and what must happen, every year in the growth 
of the Paulonia. As in this climate it never 
ripens the wood of the current year to the end 
where the single leading bud is, the next year’s 
shoot begins from two opposite side-buds; so 
that every single shoot must the next year be 
continued by a double shoot, unless this is reme¬ 
died by pruning, that is, by cutting each shoot 
back to a vigorous bud, and pinching off its 
opposite rival. 

Let us suppose the worst possible case against 
pruning. Suppose that, in consequence of ne¬ 
glect, it is necessary to take a large limb off at 
the centre of an otherwise branchless stem; 
that this makes so bad a flaw that the tree, 
when felled, must be cut and used in two 
lengths. Still, as long as it stands, as the root 
is uninjured and undiminished, the same supply 
of sap will be furnished. That sap will be ela¬ 
borated in the head by the new growth which it 
will impart to it, and the girthing of the upper 
length of the stem will be increased by all the 
growth which would have been laid on the side- 
branch, while the increase in girthing of the 
lower length of the stem will not be diminished. 
In such extreme cases, or when large branches 


Part IV.] 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


221 


have been cut off in consequence of being shat¬ 
tered by wind, their ends should be painted, and, 
if they crack, stopped with putty till the wound 
is healed over. 

To rear first-rate timber, I think the whole 
surface of the ground should be canopied over 
with the heads. This canopy should, by gra¬ 
dual and annual pruning, be raised to the great¬ 
est possible height, and by gradual and annual 
thinning be supported by the fewest possible 
stems. I think mixed woods of coppice and 
timber bad : because if the trees are close 
enough to grow clean, even timber, they will 
destroy the coppice-wood ; and if they are far 
enough apart to allow under-growth, they will 
have large side-branches and irregular stems. 

It is true that the growth of coppice-wood, 
by killing all side-branches, is the great na¬ 
tural pruner, and gives clean stems to a certain 
height; but as this is over-done in the youth of 
the plant, as soon as a coppice-wood or hedge- 
row-tree emancipates itself from the under¬ 
growth it bursts forth hydra-headed, and be¬ 
comes flat-topped. The judicious saw should 
remedy this. 

It is a great mistake of De Candolle, Rich¬ 
ard, and other French writers, to lay down the 


That a branch¬ 
less stem is a 
natural attri- 


222 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


[Part IV. 


bute of a tree 
is a mistake of 
De Candolle. 


branchless stem as a distinctive characteristic of 
a tree. All trees which grow singly on sheltered 
lawns, if permitted, have branches down to the 
ground, and from the lowest parts of their 
stems ; and most beautiful objects they are! 
Nay, if circumstances permit, trees will throw 
out branches to an indefinite extent below the 
ground on which they stand. This may be seen 
on the side of a chalk-pit, or any other bank suf¬ 
ficiently precipitous to prevent the browsing of 
cattle. The branchless stem is the result of 
injury from the hand of man, or beast, or neigh¬ 
bouring trees, The single exception to this rule 
is the Italian pine; and a most beautiful and a 
most picturesque object the branchless stem is! 
This Claude and Salvator, and all landscape 
painters, show us. And, as I have said, for 
beauty we should have every variety of growth ; 
but if we desire profit, if we desire clean timber, 
we must not go to nature for it. Clean timber 
is no more a product of nature than a field full 
of clean wheat is. Nature’s sole mode of prun¬ 
ing is killing the branches; and the timber of 
the Italian pine, the only branchless stem formed 
by nature, is more full of flaws and huge mov¬ 
able knots, than the timber of any other tree 
whatever. But in all cases except the Italian 


Part IV.] 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


223 


pine accident, not nature, produces the branch¬ 
less stem. Plant an oak in your kitchen-garden, 
and clear it of all neighbouring growth ; that is, 
shield the tree from accident, let nature alone, 
let the tree have perfect shelter, perfect soil, and 
perfect room. So far from growing with a 
branchless stem, its lower boughs shall on all 
sides, along the very ground, in length make a 
good race with its leader. What, then, are the 
natural, or rather accidental, pruners ? What 
primers make the tall, clean stem valuable as 
timber? They are three in number, — coppice- 
wood, cattle, or neighbouring trees. These are 
nature’s journeymen-pruners, and most abomi¬ 
nable bunglers they are. They follow their 
mistress’s plan, and prune by killing the 
branches, which, till they rot off, are inclosed 
in the stem, and form disunited or movable 
knots. If accident may prune, why may not 
art ? But if art and the saw are not allowed to 
do this pruning, they should at least assist, and 
cut off the boughs as they are killed by neigh¬ 
bouring trees. I only talk here in reference to 
the senseless clamour against pruning — of 
whether pruning is good or bad for the tree, 
and for the timber; not of whether it would 
pay or not. That must depend on a variety 


224 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


[Part IV. 


A living branch 
forms a cross¬ 
grain ; when 
it dies, an united 
knot. What 
is afterwards 
inclosed, a dis¬ 
united'j mov¬ 
able knot. 


of circumstances,—the price of labour, of the 
faggots, of the timber, &c. &c. 

A branch, as long as it is alive, does notTorm 
a knot in timber, but only a cross-grain, that 
is, as the stem increases each year in girthing, it 
incloses each year a portion of the root of each 
of its branches; and the grain of these branches 
forms, of course, an angle more or less acute 
with the grain of the stem. But this cross-grain 
is united grain for grain ; that is, growth for 
growth with the grain and growth of the stem. 
And if the tree is cut while the branch is alive, 
the branch forms no knot, but only a cross¬ 
grain. If the branch dies while the tree is 
alive, the cross-grain dries, and becomes an 
united knot. Afterwards the stem incloses, each 
year, a piece of disunited dead wood instead of 
living wood, which is united to it. This forms a 
disunited knot, instead of an united knot, in the 
timber; and as the dead wood is dry when it 
is inclosed, the living wood, when sawed up, 
dries from it. This forms a movable knot. 
The bark ceases to run when dead, and is fre¬ 
quently inclosed with the dead branch. This, 
and afterwards rottenness of the outside of 
branches, increase the disunion of knots from 
the timber. But, besides the flaw in the timber, 


Part IV.] 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


225 


the dead wood which is inclosed forms an impe¬ 
diment to the course of the sap, and a conse¬ 
quent distortion of the grain, as much as if a 
bolt of iron were passed into the tree. 

Now, the great objection to a cross-grain or 
to an united knot is, that it prevents the timber 
from cleaving and working well, as the carpenters 
say: but it does not weaken the timber, or 
render it more liable to break; but at every 
disunited knot the timber is already broken , be¬ 
sides the cross-grain. 

De Candolle remarks that, as the girthing of 
the branch is at first extremely small, but in¬ 
creases annually, each year the stem incloses a 
larger circumference; and that part of the 
branch which is inclosed is in the form of a 
cone, its base at the bark, and diminishing in¬ 
wardly towards the pith. The outer part of the 
branch is in the form of a cone, its base at the 
bark, diminishing outwardly. But no such in¬ 
ternal cone exists except in appearance, that is, 
in colour , when a branch has died while the tree 
was alive : and doubtless De Candolle has been 
deceived by the appearance of knots formed by 
branches which died and dried before the tree 
was cut. When a branch dies while the tree is 
alive, it will indeed dry in and change colour in 
Q 


226 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


[Part IY. 


the form of a cone ; because, as the continuation 
in the stem of its annual growths is not pecu¬ 
liar to the branch, but common to the whole 
tree, they do not dry in and change colour like 
the dead branch, but remain moist conduits for 
the upward sap to the head of the tree. But as 
long as the branch is alive, the medullary rays 
and longitudinal woody fibres of the new annual 
growth of it are prolonged, and run vertically 
down that part of the stem of the tree which is 
below the branch ; so that it is only the grain 
of the centre part of the branch, that is, its first 
year’s growth, which runs across the grain to the 
centre of the tree. It then in general joins the 
second year’s growth of that part of the stem 
which is below it, and runs down the stem of 
the tree to the roots. The grain of every other 
year’s growth of the branch annually turns down 
the stem of the tree, short of the centre of the 
tree, directly as the newness of its growth. The 
same or rather the reverse appearance may be 
observed above the branch, if a living branch 
and the stem are cut longitudinally where they 
join; that is, the grain of each year’s growth of 
the branch appears to turn up the stem of the 
tree: for each annual downward growth of the 
branch meets the corresponding annual down- 


Part IV.] 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


227 


ward growth of the head of the tree, joins or 
anastomoses with it, and passes round the side 
of the branch down the stem. Thus, above, 
and below, and on the sides of the branch, each 
annual growth of the branch and of the stem is 
not two growths, but one growth, and it cannot 
be said where the growth of the branch ends 
and that of the stem begins ; and the part of the 
branch within the stem is much more like the 
roots of a tree than a cone. When the tree is 
cut up in the saw-pit, if the saw does not strike 
the pith of the branch exactly lengthwise, if it 
cuts the branch diagonally lengthwise, the branch 
will form a double cone and taper both ways at 
once. If this double cone chance to be divided 
across the centre, the two parts of the same 
branch will on one board show as a cone taper¬ 
ing outwardly, and in another as a cone tapering 
inwardly. The double cone I allude to, will be 
easily seen by cutting a small branch across 
with a long slant . De Candolle’s internal cone 
would only exist if the annual downward growth 
in girthing of the branch ceased when it arrived 
at the stem; but as this growth does not cease 
here, a branch unduly large in proportion to the 
head of the tree will form from its own deposit 
an excrescence below it where it joins the stem; 
q 2 


228 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


[Part IV. 


equivalent to what are called “ the spurs/’ or 
the “ swell of the roots” where they join the 
stem. De Candolle’s observations would apply 
to roots as well as branches. But if we bisect 
them lengthwise, we may see with a glance that 
roots as well as branches stand on increasing, 
not decreasing bases, where they join the stem. 
A dead branch, or an undersized branch, over¬ 
grown by the head of the tree, will cause a 
hollow below it, from stopping the downward 
current from the head, which cannot turn suffi¬ 
ciently short to deposit immediately below the 
branch. This is often seen in beech-trees; and 
the groove is sometimes prolonged the whole 
extent of the stem. 

Indeed, the unity of growth which must exist 
at the foot of each branch, with the part of the 
stem which is above it as well as below it, is 
apparent from the fact that, when branches are 
cut otf at the distance of an inch or two from 
the stem, the descending sap of the bark of the 
stem will ascend the bark of these stumps, will 
well over between their dead upper bark and 
wood, annually increase their girthing, and cica¬ 
trise or heal over their ends, forming protube¬ 
rances which will occasion a consequent distor¬ 
tion of the grain of the wood, and diversion of 


Part IV.] 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


229 


the current of sap. These protuberances will, 
indeed, in the course of time almost entirely 
disappear, because, if equals are annually added 
to unequals, in the course of time apparent, 
though not absolute equality, will result; and 
this does take place in the annual deposit of new 
layers of wood and bark over the stem and these 
protuberances. But each of these protuberances 
creates a piece of dead, disunited wood, which 
is in general nearly, if not perfectly rotten. 
This system of pruning, as far as it goes, makes 
flaws in timber, and disunited knots, similar to 
the leaving dead branches on trees. These flaws 
are discovered only in the saw-pit, or by the 
searching augur, and the blame is laid on prun¬ 
ing generally; whereas pruning living branches 
close to the stem prevents the very evils which 
it is accused of creating. If a dead branch and 
the stem are cut longitudinally where they join, 
though the whole branch may have dried in in 
the form of a cone as far as the central pith of 
the tree, still there is a perfect unison of the 
dead wood of the branch with the living wood 
of the stem, and the junction of each new annual 
growth of the stem and the branch will be per¬ 
fectly visible as long as the branch lived. But 
from where the branch died each annual growth 

Q 3 


230 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


[Part IV. 


Healing over 
an amputated 
branch. 


of the stem will inclose a portion of a mere dead 
bolt without any junction with it; and this is 
one strong reason for not letting trees prune 
themselves , as it is called, that is, for cutting off 
the side-branches before they are killed by their 
neighbours, and for cutting them as close as 
possible to the stem: even then a protuberance 
of the thickness of the bark will be left; and 
where the bark is thick and dead, a part of this 
should be taken away with the branch. 

When a living branch is cut off a vigorous 
tree close to the stem, new growth, both of wood 
and of bark, is gradually and annually deposited 
over the end of it. This new twin growth 
begins as the tree ceases to shoot. About June 
the bark may be observed to separate from the 
wood, and the granulations of this new growth 
may be seen between them; it proceeds in a 
semicircular form on the top and sides of the 
scar, till the growth from one side meets the 
growth from the other side at the lower part of 
the scar; the growth then proceeds towards the 
centre of the circle; and as the new annual 
growth both of wood and bark is deposited on 
the top as well as the sides of this circular wave 
of growth, the level of the top of the wave keeps 
pace with the level of the annually increasing 


Part IV.] 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


231 


girthing of the tree, and when the ring closes in 
the centre no indentation is left; and each suc¬ 
ceeding year the new annual ring of wood and 
of bark is deposited over where the branch was, 
with as much regularity as on any other part of 
the stem, nor is any distortion of the grain of the 
wood or diversion of the current of the sap occa¬ 
sioned after the healing is completed. The end 
of the branch will die and dry in, possibly to 
the extent of the cross-grain occasioned by it, 
and a very slight and inconsiderable flaw will 
remain in the timber where the living wood is 
deposited on this dead surface; this flaw will 
be no greater than that occasioned by a small 
piece of bark being accidentally knocked off a 
tree. 

The rapidity of the healing will be directly 
as the rapidity of the growth in girthing of the 
stem. Suppose the width of the new annual 
layer of wood to be a quarter of an inch, it 
would take twelve years to heal over the end of 
an amputated branch, whose diameter was six 
inches. During those twelve years, the grain of 
the new wood deposited over the end of the 
branch will be curled; after that, straight¬ 
grained wood will be annually deposited. These 
are reasons for preventing the undue growth of 

Q 4 


232 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


[Part IV. 


side-branches in bulk, and for finally taking them 
off while small. 

On cutting across the part of a branch which 
I had rung, I found that in the course of twelve 
years the outside wood . had died, and dried in 
only to the thickness of paper. From this I 
imagined that the case would be the same with 
the ends of amputated branches. I think it, 
however, probable that the reason why so slight 
a surface of the rung branch died and dried was, 
that the whole of the internal wood remained 
the conduit of the upward sap. In the case of 
amputated branches, the internal wood would 
cease to be a conduit of sap, and the whole pro¬ 
bably dies and dries in as far as the cross-grain. 
This would occasion a knot to that extent; but 
it would be a knot united annually growth for 
growth with the stem-wood, and not like the 
detached knots which are formed by the inclos¬ 
ing in the stem of branches which have died. 

The healing takes place over a dead branch 
which is cut off in the same manner as over a 
living one. But if a dead branch is left till it 
becomes rotten where it joins the stem, as there 
is no firm surface for the deposit of new wood, 
the new growth curls round upon itself, and a 
hole remains in the stem of the tree. In this 


Part IV.] 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


233 


the water, running down the stem, lodges and 
saturates the parts. This, with the action of 
the oxygen of the air, continues the process of 
decay, which is communicated by contact to the 
heart-wood of the tree: and hollowness of the 
centre is almost always thus caused by rotten 
branches from above, not by rotten roots from 
below. This is the fruitful source of destruction 
to our timber-trees, to the life of which, other¬ 
wise, there is apparently no necessary limit. 
Very little care may avoid this chief cause of 
decay. 

It is not meant to assert that there is no limit 
to the age, or height, or bulk which in a case of 
optimism trees may attain to; but at present 
we know of none. The whole appears to depend 
on circumstances; that is, even if we knew the 
maximum age, or height, or bulk which any par¬ 
ticular sort of tree had ever attained to, it would 
not follow that under more favourable circum¬ 
stances others might not have surpassed it. 

The prejudice against pruning with a saw, or 
the idea of the necessity of afterwards cutting 
the wounds over with a sharp instrument, is 
a vulgar error. The new formation of wood 
and bark over an amputated branch is not 
from the cut wood, which dies, or from the 


Prejudice 
against pruning 
with a saw a 
vulgar error. 


234 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


[Part IV. 


Explanation of 
Plates I. and II. 


lip of the bark, which also dies. It comes 
from springs far above these and independent of 
them. The new deposit of wood and bark over 
the wounds of trees is the brimrning-over of the 
descending stream of growth between the wood 
and the bark, and has nothing to do with the 
dead wood of the wound, or the dead rim of 
bark which surrounds it. It would continue to 
grow over the dead wood if it were stuck full 
of nails or tenter-hooks. It does continue to 
grow over it even when it is rotten ; and when 
the wood has quite mouldered away, the growth 
still continues, but, as there is no basis on which 
to deposit, it curls round on itself. 

Since the publication of the first edition of 
this treatise, I have found an example which 
will throw light on what has been stated. 

Plate I. is an engraving of a piece of a board 
planed down to a level with the centre of the 
pith of the stem, and of the pith of a branch. 
The board is from a Scotch fir cut in Brookwood 
Park, Hampshire. 

A is intended to represent the upper end of 
the board, which has been cut across ; B, the 
lower end. Both of these cross-cut ends are 
turned so as to face the same way with the side 
of the board, which is cut lengthways, so that 


plate I, 




I’LATE I . — Showing the junction of the pith of a younger shoot of the stem with the pith of an older shoot of tl,» > , 

the stem with the growths of the older shoot of the stem ; the junction of the pith of a branch with the nith of I , ? . ® JUnctl0n of the K rowths of the 5’ 0un " ( ' r shont of 

with the growths of a shoot of the stem above it, of the same age as the branch, and witli the erowtbs : the junction of the growths of the same branch both 

of the ffrnwthe of a iintni* s*n — u -ia *i-..—* — —- - ... * shoot of the stem below it, a year older than the branch , the junction 

disjunction of an inclosed dead branch from 


- W..WWV UI Vise OICIII mm: 11, WI I.lie Brtiiic aai nllv.II, illlU With tl)C CTOWths of *1 elm > e .■ f' 

of the growths of a living branch witli the growths of the 6tem, and consequently the increasing | v .,„ , " St ' m ,H ' 0W il ’ * y<'»r older 

the stem.wood, the healing-over the end of a dead or cut branch. mcreas.ng base on whrch a branch stands ; the disjunction o 



















































































































































































































































































































































Part IV.] PRUNING AND THINNING. 

the correspondence of the pith and grain or 
growths of the ends with those of the side may¬ 
be easily traced; and the numbering is in¬ 
tended to make this correspondence more clear. 
In the fir tribe generally, the latest annual 
shoot is surmounted by a circle of buds, or what 
is called a whorl of buds, around the leading 
bud. These whorls of buds become whorls of 
branches ; and where the piths of these branches 
join the pith of the stem, they mark in the 
centre of the tree, indelibly and for ever, the 
highest point of each successive annual growth, 
from the first shoot of the seedling, to the last 
shoot of the forest pine. C, the point where the 
pith of the branch joins the pith of the stem, 
marks also the highest point of the first annual 
growth of this board. The reason that this first 
growth is so small is, that it formed the taper 
top of the then leader of the tree. So the 
difference in the size of the main pith above and 
below the branch is caused by the junction of 
the tapering end of the pith of the older lower 
shoot, with the broad-based beginning of the 
pith of the younger upper shoot. 

On the left side of the pith of the stem, where 
there is no branch, it may be seen that the first 
annual growth of the older shoot of the stem 


236 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


[Part IV. 


below the branch ceases at C, but the pith is 
prolonged through it upwards; also that the 
first annual growth of the younger shoot of the 
stem above the branch is continuous, and the 
same with the second annual growth of the older 
shoot of the stem below the branch: and, 
doubtless, the reason that the second growth 
below is so much larger than the first growth 
either above or below is, that it has received the 
deposit from the whorl of branches in addition 
to the growth from the leader, which did not 
accrue to either of these first annual growths. 
Each annual growth of the stem above the 
branch will be found continuous and the same 
with the growth numbered one after it below 
the branch. 

On the right of the pith, from C to D D, is 
the growth of the stem while the branch was 
alive: and five annual growths of the stem, 
both above and below the branch, may be seen 
to be united to the five annual growths of the 
branch; namely, the first five annual growths 
above the branch, and from the second to the 
sixth inclusive below it. So that the first an¬ 
nual growth of the branch is continuous and 
the same with the first annual growth of the 
younger shoot of the stem above the branch, but 


Part IV.] 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


237 


with the second annual growth of the older 
shoot of the stem below the branch ; and each 
annual growth of the branch is continuous and 
the same with that growth of the stem above 
the branch which corresponds with it in number, 
but with the growth numbered one later below 
the branch. 

Here, then, it may be seen that branches are 
attached to the stem by increasing bases, not, as 
might be imagined from De Candolle’s state¬ 
ment, by decreasing bases ; that is, each annual 
growth of the branch joins a corresponding 
annual growth of the stem: and as each annual 
growth of the stem, besides the deposit from the 
annual growth of the branch, receives a deposit 
from the head above it, each annual growth of 
the stem is larger than its corresponding annual 
growth of the branch. The width of each an¬ 
nual growth of the branch at the point of con¬ 
fluence, that is, where it joins and mingles with 
the stem, may be seen to open out as the river 
becomes wider as it receives each tributary; 
and each growth of the branch may be seen to 
be attached to the stem by an increased , not a 
decreased base. Besides this increase in bulk 
of each annual growth of the branch where it 
joins the stem, each growth in succession more 


238 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


[Part IV. 


deeply and more firmly imbeds and builds in all 
its predecessors in the stem of the tree. It is 
only such an arrangement as this which would 
support the enormous weight on the enormously 
long levers which wide-spreading branches offer. 

When the growth of the stem had arrived at 
D D, the branch died; that is, when the cen¬ 
tral part of this board below the branch was six 
years old, and when the central part of the 
branch and of the board above it was five years 
old. From D D to E E, during a period of 
eleven years at the upper side of the branch, 
and of twenty-two years at the more projecting 
lower side of it, the dead branch has been gra¬ 
dually and annually inclosed by the growths of 
the stem, forming a disunited knot; that is, 
the branch may be seen to be disunited from 
these growths of the stem. At E E the growths 
of the stem curve over the cut end of the 
branch. After covering the cut end, the growths 
would have again become continuous and straight 
had the board been wide enough to show it. 
Indeed, in Plate II., which is the contrary side 
of the same board and branch, the growth has 
already become continuous. 

If the branch had been cut off close to the 
stem at D D when it died, it would have healed 


Part IV.] 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


239 


over there, and from D D to E E would have 
been solid clean timber instead of a disunited 
knot. So that there would have been no dis¬ 
united knot at all, but only a cross-grain, formed 
by the living branch firmly united to the stem, 
and decreasing in size towards the centre of the 
tree, with a scar at the end D D, like that at 
E E. This scar would form no greater flaw in 
the timber, than one arising from a small piece 
of bark being knocked off the stem. If the 
branch had not died, the cross-grain would not 
only have been annually prolonged as long as 
the tree continued to grow, but would also have 
increased in bulk every j^ear: for De Candolle’s 
cone, whose apex is at the pith, and whose base 
at the bark of the stem, describes most accurately 
the form of the cross-grain occasioned by a 
living branch in the timber of a tree. If the 
branch when it died had not been cut off at 
E E, the existing disunited knot would have 
been prolonged; that is, from E E in the di¬ 
rection of F, as long as the tree grew, and the 
branch remained on it, a disunited knot would 
have been inclosed in exchange for the deposit 
of solid, clean, straight-grained timber. For 
that the grain becomes straight as soon as the 
scar is healed over, may be seen in Plate II. 


240 ’ 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


[Part IV. 


The sixteenth annual growth above the branch 
is the last whose descent was checked by the 
dead branch. Its distance from the centre of 
the pith of the stem, measured at the upper edge 
of the board, is four inches one sixteenth. The 
distance of the sixteenth annual growth from 
the centre of the pith below the branch, mea¬ 
sured at the lower edge of the board, is only 
three inches five sixteenths. I imagine that the 
dead branch acted like a ligature, and that, by 
checking the descent of the sap, it caused the 
swelling above it. Below the branch, the 
growths gradually and annually diminish after 
the sixth, which is the time of the death of the 
branch. I have no doubt that the reason of 
this is, that the branch was killed by the prox¬ 
imity of neighbouring trees, and that they at 
the same time killed, and afterwards continued 
to kill, an undue number of side-branches, which 
caused an unduly diminished return of descend¬ 
ing sap, and, consequently, a diminished annual 
ring or growth of timber. So that, notwith¬ 
standing the gradual diminishing after the sixth 
growth, the first fifteen growths of this board 
are nearly three times the size of the next fifteen 
growths; and from after the fifteenth growth 
of this board* the tree was doubtless one of 













To face page 241. 


PLATE II. 


CONTRACT SIDE OF TIIE BOARD REPRESENTED IN PLATE I. 














































































































































































































Part IV.] 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


241 


those denuded poles of which the growth of our 
unthinned plantations in general consists. But 
if room is given for these poles to increase the 
size of their heads, they will in the same propor¬ 
tion increase the size of their annual rings of 
timber. 

The centre of the lower part of the tree was, 
doubtless, much older than any part of this 
board. I imagine that the sort of wavy cross¬ 
grain, which may be observed along the upper 
edge of all branches which are cut like this spe¬ 
cimen, to be the result of the mechanical diffi¬ 
culty which the new growth has to raise and 
eject the bark from the acute angle formed by 
the upper side of the branch and the stem. 
The wavy cross-grain ceases when the bark 
ceases to be raised. 

Plate II. shows the contrary side of the board. 

Owing to the distance from the pith at which 
the saw has passed, the growths of the branch 
are not visible on this side, as they are in 
Plate I. 

On the left, the fifth annual growth of the 
younger shoot of the stem above the branch, 
joins the beginning of the upper side of the 
branch ; the sixth annual growth of the older 
shoot of the stem below the branch, joins the 

R 


242 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


[Part IV. 


beginning of the lower side of the branch: these 
two growths are continuous and the same with 
each other; and, as in Plate I., they are con¬ 
tinuous and the same with the last or outside 
growth of the branch. All the growths to the 
left of these are disunited with the branch; and, 
if the branch had been cut off at A when it 
died, they would have formed clean solid timber, 
like that outside the end of the branch, instead 
of inclosing a disunited knot. Each of the 
other annual growths of the stem above the 
branch will be found continuous and the same 
with the growth numbered one after it below 
the branch. 

In countries where it is the practice to shrive 
the hedge-row trees, their branchless stems are 
ascended by means of spikes at the sides of the 
feet. In the East, palms are ascended to in¬ 
oculate the flower and to gather the fruit, by 
placing the feet against the stem, and the back 
against a band which includes the stem and the 
climber. 

In pruning old and long neglected trees, the 
ladder should be placed perfectly upright against 
the stem of the tree, and tied fast to prevent its 
being knocked off by the falling branches, or 
broken by them. If the head of the tree is out 


Part IV.] 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


243 


of reach, a string may sometimes be swung over 
one of its boughs by a weight, or shot over with 
a blunt arrow, and by this a rope hauled over. 
Seated in a loop at one end of the rope, or with 
one end tied round the thigh, the hands on the 
opposite rope will acquire the mechanical advan¬ 
tage of a fixed and movable pulley; that is, 
the double rope doubles your power, or, in this 
case I should say, halves your exertion, and 
you may raise your whole weight with half the 
exertion required without a pulley. Let us call 
this natural pulley, the pruner’s pulley. It is 
often useful to reach the head, or to remove 
dead wood or a detached branch on an otherwise 
branchless stem, or to make the pruner safe; 
and would make a good fire-escape. 

In explanation I attach an engraving from 
Chambers’s excellent educational 
course, “ Mechanics,” 1837. The 
writer, however, like others, has 
entirely mistaken the principle of 
this curious mechanical paradox. 

In mechanics, indeed, no axiom 
is more certain than that without 
two pulleys, that is, with the fixed 
‘pulley only, and without the mov¬ 
able pulley also, no mechanical advantage is 

R 2 






244 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


[Part IV. 


gained. But in the pruner’s pulley, even the 
single fixed pulley is dispensed with; yet, 
without any apparent mechanical advantage, 
half is made equal to the whole . This paradox 
disgusts the well-instructed engineer, even still 
more than it does the most brutally ignorant 
man of plain common sense. Truth, however, 
has a trick of being paradoxical, and this truth 
is as true as that you can blow hot and blow 
cold; and it was only the brutally ignorant 
satyr who denied that simple but paradoxical 
truth. 

But in the pruner’s pulley the man is, in fact, 
at once the movable pulley, the weight to be 
lifted, and the power that lifts; and the friction 
of the movable pulley is saved while its mecha¬ 
nical advantage is gained. Luckily, this is not 
a matter of opinion, but a matter of fact; and, 
practically, it may be proved by children or 
weak persons, who are unable to raise their 
weight on a single rope. Theoretically, it is in 
perfect accordance with what in mechanics is 
called “ the law of virtual velocities: ” for, if 
you ascend fifty feet by a single rope, your hands 
pass over fifty feet of rope; and, for every foot 
your hands ascend, your body ascends a foot. 
But if you ascend fifty feet by a double rope, 


Part IV.] 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


245 


your hands pass over 100 feet of rope; and, for 
every foot your hands ascend, your body only 
ascends half a foot, and your hands descend 
again half a foot. Again, if you haul a weight 
up to a bough by a double rope fifty feet from 
the ground, fifty feet of rope will pass through 
your hands, and no mechanical advantage is 
gained. But if you haul yourself up fifty feet 
by a double rope, 100 feet of rope will pass 
through your hands; and as in ascending the 
whole space the hands will pass over twice the 
space of rope, so at any particular part of the as¬ 
cent they will require only half the exertion. 

The saw should have a loop to the handle, so 
as to hang on your arm while climbing. A rope 
or belt round the tree and your body, which you 
can lean back against while at work, adds infi¬ 
nitely to your power. 

March and April are my two months for prun¬ 
ing trees which do not bleed. At that time 
branches have returned their downward sap for 
the nutriment of the root, and have scarcely yet 
begun to receive the new supply upward, and 
they will bequeath their annual share of this to 
the leader and other heirs of your choosing; and, 
the leaves being off, you can clearly see to which 
the talents should be entrusted. 

r a 


Best time for 
pruning. 


246 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


[Part IV. 


Measurement 
and longevity 
of trees. 


I never dare touch sycamore or walnut except 
in summer. I have never known any tree bleed 
when in full leaf. I have known sycamore and 
walnut bleed when pruned at Christmas, which 
corroborates the idea of a winter circulation of 
sap ; but perhaps we have an undue horror of 
bleeding from pruning. The southern vineyards 
are always pruned in the bleeding season ; and 
the more freely they bleed, the better the sign. 
I object to autumnal pruning, because the 
boughs are full of elaborated sap due to the 
root. These observations apply to pruning 
hardy forest-trees for wood, not to pruning for 
fruit 

The largest sound tree I have ever measured 
is “the grindstone oak” in the Holt Forest.* 
It is thirty-five feet in girthing at three feet 
from the ground. It is dead, and was appa¬ 
rently lately dead when I first saw it, since the 
bark was still on it: I think it has been origi¬ 
nally a 'pollard (polled or headed) ; and the 
largest sound timber I have ever seen in Eng¬ 
land has been old pollards, allowed to grow up 
in our forest grounds, after the pollard system 


* Unhappily burnt by a thoughtless boy some 5th of 
November, since this was published in 1844. 


Part IV.] 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


247 


had ceased. They were probably allowed to 
grow because, being many-headed, their timber 
was not valuable. 

Such trees, I believe, continue to exist for 
centuries, perhaps for thousands of years ; even 
after they are hollow. The old pollards which 
grace our forest grounds and commons were 
probably headed as young trees, and their 
growth cut periodically, as our underwood is 
now, the browsing of the deer and cattle neces¬ 
sitating in such places this sort of aerial coppice- 
wood. Charcoal was generally used before coal; 
and I think that the old pollards and the black 
circles of earth about Rotherfield, in this neigh¬ 
bourhood, may both be remains of the charcoal- 
burners of the forest, called by the Romans 
Anderida Silva, and by the Saxons Andredes 
Weald. 

However the heads of these pollards may be 
lopped, every year of life adds one ring of new 
wood and bark to the girthing of the stem. The 
same takes place when the tree is perfectly hol¬ 
low. The inside dead wood, being dry and im- 
porous, prevents the bleeding or efflux of the 
sap. I have found the girthing of some of 
these relics of the olden time much greater than 
the girthing of any sound timber I have ever 

R 4 


248 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


[Part IV- 


measured, though probably the pollards never 
girthed large as sound trees. Even when the 
circle is broken, and they stand like detached 
strips of bark, the new deposit of wood and bark 
takes place on their outside, while their inside 
is sloughing, or rotting off, and these detached 
strips gradually and annually progress outwards 
from where the centre of the tree was. 

When old pollards are cut over, they throw 
out new branches most vigorously, which mili¬ 
tates against the theory, that all new branches 
are from original latent buds, and from the 
central pith; since old pollards may be found 
not only destitute of central pith, but the oldest 
part of whose stem-wood is possibly not ten 
years of age. So that the casuist might raise the 
question whether these our supposed oldest trees 
are not actually among our youngest; as the 
identity of the ship Argo was disputed when, from 
constant gradual repair in the temple where it 
was preserved, every part of the old ship had 
disappeared and had been replaced. Nay, since 
whilst a pollard is becoming hollow the internal 
decay surpasses the external growth, it may be 
said to become younger by age; and when 
decay and growth balance each other, that age, 
or the addition of years, makes it no older. 


Part IV.] 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


249 


The great secret of large timber is, centuries 
of non-cutting down, good soil, room, and shel¬ 
tered situation. These conditions rarely come 
together in cultivated countries, though they do 
sometimes in our old family places. The free 
growth and the enormous measurements of trees 
in the forests of uncultivated countries are more 
frequently to be attributed to the concurrence of 
the favourable conditions above stated, than to 
the peculiar attributes of the trees themselves. 
Such trees, when imported, and planted on the 
poor soils and exposed situations which are alone 
planted in cultivated countries, make moderate 
progress, and never reach any size. 

As long as countries are in a state of na¬ 
ture, trees, being the original possessors, seize 
on the valleys and best soils, from which they 
actually exclude man and cultivation. But the 
case is reversed when man has cleared the best 
soils for cultivation. Trees are then seldom 
planted or suffered to grow except on soils so 
bad as not to pay for cultivation. 

I have received the following marvellous mea¬ 
surements of some pinus Lambertianas on the 
Columbia, from an authority that I cannot 
doubt. At eight feet from the ground they 
were fifteen feet in diameter. The stems were 


250 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


[Part IY. 


branchless to two hundred and fifty feet from 
the ground, and were there thirteen feet in 
diameter. If the new annual ring of wood were 
a quarter of an inch wide, trees would attain 
this diameter in three hundred and sixty years; 
and, supposing them to have grown a foot a year 
in height, this would allow them eighty feet of 
head above the branchless stem. 

These measurements, which I called marvellous 
in the first edition of this treatise, are (together 
with the guesses in reference to the age of the 
trees) rather put in the shade by the following. 
Adanson measured a baobab tree (Adansonia 
digitata) to be thirty feet in diameter, and gives 
it the astounding and patriarchal age of 5150 
years. This would be very slow growth ; 
scarcely more than the twenty-ninth part of an 
inch for the width of each annual ring; that 
is, if the width of the annual ring were the 
twenty-ninth part of an inch, the tree would 
attain the diameter of thirty feet in 5220 years, 
or in seventy years more than the supposed age 
of the tree. 

The age of this identical baobab, then, at 
Noah’s deluge, being short of 1000 years, its 
diameter would be short of six feet, and its 


Part IV.] 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


251 


girthing perhaps seventeen feet; not an incon¬ 
siderable plant certainly, but small for so great 
an irrigation. Adanson’s guess was made by 
cutting into the stem of the tree till the width 
of three hundred rings was measured. “ The 
average rate of growth of younger trees of the 
same species was then ascertained, and the cal¬ 
culation made according to a supposed mean 
rate of increase.” I quote from the admirable 
Lyell, who quotes the “ Biblioth. Univ.” on the 
longevity of trees. 

If the general average width of the rings, which 
included the growth of the young trees, was only 
the twenty-ninth part of an inch, what was the 
average of the first three hundred rings, which 
were all old growths ? Perhaps the fiftieth part 
of an inch. But Adanson should have given us 
these data, and his mode of calculation from them. 
1 cannot help thinking that he may have made a 
slight mistake in these calculations; that he may 
have omitted to perceive that, although to make 
up the diameter of a tree from the rings on one 
side of its centre the width of these rings must be 
reckoned double, to ascertain the age of the tree 
the number of the rings on one side of its centre 
must be reckoned single. The width of a half 


252 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


[Part IV. 


diameter must be doubled to make a whole dia¬ 
meter ; but when you count the years of a 
tree you must not double them to get at its age. 
“ There’s ne’er a villain in all Denmark but he’s 
an arrant rogue.” These three truisms seem 
equally profound and equally palpable. Yet I 
think that Adanson may have made the slip, 
and, with the tree standing, may have failed to 
perceive that the number of rings on the half 
diameter is the same as on the whole diameter; 
and that, having doubled their width in complet¬ 
ing the space or diameter, he has also doubled 
their number in reckoning the time or the age of 
the tree. If so, the number of years he has 
given must be halved , and 2575 years would be 
the age of the tree; a pretty good age too, 
since it would nearly take us back to the time 
of Romulus! Even for this age, however, the 
growth must have been slow ; little more than 
the fifteenth part of an inch for the width of 
each annual ring. If the annual ring were one- 
eighth of an inch in width, the tree would attain 
the size of thirty feet in diameter in 1440 years; 
if the ring were one-fourth of an inch in width, 
in 720 years. 

I think that the baobab should be “ restored 
to its place in universal history,” because the 


Part IV.] 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


253 


next step taken by physiologists on this datum 
of Adanson’s will be, that all trees of thirty feet 
in diameter are 5150 years of age; and so, in 
proportion as the diameter of any tree exceeds 
or falls short of thirty feet, an age greater or 
less than 5150 years will be assigned to it : 
from which it would result that a tree must 
grow 174 years, nearly two centuries, before it 
would attain one foot in diameter. Lyell, 
speaking of a submarine forest at Bournmouth, 
in Hampshire, says: “ Seventy-six rings of an¬ 
nual growth were counted in a transverse sec¬ 
tion of one of the buried trees, which was four¬ 
teen inches in diameter.” This, though exceed¬ 
ingly slow growth, is about three times the 
growth allowed by Adanson. But were the 
rings perfect on each half diameter ? If not, 
the width of those wanting on the deficient half 
diameter must be added to the fourteen inches 
of growth. On the other hand, and in accord¬ 
ance with the rule above, we are told that De 
Candolle thinks that the Montezuma cypress 
(Taxodium sempervirens) at Mexico exceeds the 
age of the baobab,—exceeds these poor 5150 
years in age. And this opinion is quoted, with 
profound respect, by one of the most profound 
men of the day,—by Lyell. Did De Candolle 


254 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


[Part IV. 


think this before Adanson gave us his measure¬ 
ments and guesses? I’ll be bound that he did 
not. I’ll be bound that the first philosopher has 
taken the second philosopher’s calculations for 
granted; and, as the cypress exceeds the baobab 
in measurement, he concludes, naturally, that 
the cypress also exceeds the baobab in years. 
If the two philosophers are right, the two trees 
are slow growers. The measurement given of 
the cypress is 117 feet in girthing. This is 
about thirty-nine feet in diameter; and, suppos¬ 
ing the annual ring to be the twenty-ninth part 
of an inch in width, which is the rate of growth 
assigned by Adanson to the baobab, the age of 
the cypress should be 6786 years. So that 
u the seedling began to vegetate” nearly a thou¬ 
sand years before the creation of man according 
to the Hebrew text of the Mosaic writings. If 
the width of the annual ring were one-eighth of 
an inch, the tree would attain the size of thirty- 
nine feet in diameter in 1872 years. If the 
width of the annual ring were one-fourth of an 
inch, the diameter of the tree would have been 
thirty-nine feet in 936 years ; and the Monte¬ 
zuma cypress would have been about 400 years 
old at the conquest of Mexico. This is, per¬ 
haps, more likely than that it should be a thou- 


Tart IV.] 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


255 


sand years old in the time of Adam. The 
growth in girthing of trees in decay — that is, 
with hollow trunks and pollard heads—is indeed 
very diminutive ; and to give them the girthing 
which they attain to, any number of years may 
be allowed. So the growth in girthing of forest- 
trees will vary in the same tree, according to ac¬ 
cidental circumstances. In Plate I. some of the 
early growths, when the plant had perfect room, 
exceeds one-third of an inch in width. Some of 
the later growths, when its head had been 
crowded to death by neighbours, scarcely exceed 
one-tenth of an inch. But if one-fourth of an 
inch is allowed for the annual ring of growing 
trees, — that is, of sound trunks with full heads, 
—in 5000 years they would attain a diameter of 
more than 200 feet, and a girthing of more than 
600 feet. If this growth is halved, and one- 
eighth of an inch width is allowed for the an¬ 
nual ring, a diameter of more than 100 feet, and 
a girthing of more than 300 feet, would result 
in 5000 years. We may ask, did the baobab 
grow in height for 5000 years ? If so, the 
Adansonia digitata is too modest a name. (I 
speak as regards the tree, not the man.) It 
should be christened the Adam-o-father-ia Sky- 
scrapo-moonrakiana; though De Candolle, or 


256 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


[Part IV. 


any man well up in botany, would give the first 
semi-diameter of this name from the Latin, and 
the last Grceco fonte. 

I think it possible that oaks, which habitually 
make two shoots in the year, may make two 
(annual?) rings in the year: and this may be 
possible with many trees in the tropics. That 
trees of gigantic stature are not more frequently 
found in unappropriated forests is generally 
to be attributed to their want of room; that 
is, to their growing so close as to injure or 
kill one another. They cannot attain to first- 
rate growth without ages of contention and 
killing all their neighbours. In doing so, the 
growth of the survivors is not only delayed for 
centuries, but in general permanently marred. 
The axe should gradually and successively re¬ 
lieve them from their neighbours. 

Of course, all side-growth is, from the posi¬ 
tion of its weight, more liable to break than 
upright or vertical growth. When a tree takes 
two leaders, from want of light and from want 
of room on the inside, the leaders grow from one 
another to the outside; and from their weight 
inclining to the outside, without anything to 
balance it on the inside, they are liable to split 
from one another. As each leader enlarges 


Part IV.] PRUNING AND THINNING. 


257 


annually in girthing, the junction at their two 
bases progresses upwards, inclosing the bark of 
each between the two. This double stratum 
of thick bark is killed by mechanical pressure, 
perhaps for a foot or two in height, and rots to 
that extent. This prevents the deposit of any 
new wood on those parts of the inside of either 
leader, and consequently also prevents the per¬ 
fect junction, or anastomosing, of the wood of 
the two leaders. Water lodges in the hollow at 
the fork ; and a frost which is severe enough to 
freeze this water will rend apart the trunk of 
the sturdiest oak to a certainty. Besides this, 
the hollow at the fork becomes a leaf-trap, 
catches any dust which may be driven by wind, 
receives the moss and detritus of the bark 
which are washed down by rain, and forms a 
cupful of fine dark mould. Into this the tree 
itself often strikes roots, which descend between 
and through the rotten bark which I have men¬ 
tioned to its very base. Then comes the mira¬ 
culous force of turgescence, acting in the true 
line of cleavage of the tree, and the twin leaders 
are rent from each other to as great a certainty 
as the granite is split by the wetted bolt of 
wood. I can show a root thus formed on an 
elm after (as I believe) it had been the cause of 


s 


258 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


[Part IV. 


splitting off half the tree. The root is still alive, 
though the soil in which it grew is gone. 
Whence comes the upward sap in the wood of 
this root ? or of those denuded in the experi¬ 
ment which I have mentioned, p. 109 ? 

Early and constant pruning will avoid the 
cause of these fruitful sources of decay in 
timber. 

If the heads of trees are dying in, from acci¬ 
dental blight, or from the destruction of their 
leaves and shoots by a strong south-wester, or 
from frost, &c., in all cases they should be cut 
in, not only to where the boughs are alive, but 
to where they are vigorous, and, if possible, at 
the foot of a living twig or bud. If the dying 
boughs are left on the tree, the sap is wasted by 
going up the boughs, without the power of 
breaking out or returning, consequently the 
roots are starved; for the only power of return— 
that is, the only communication between the 
upward course of the sap in the wood, and the 
downward course in the bark—is a living leaf 
or bud. 

If the dying boughs are cut off, the sap, 
which would have been uselessly expended in 
them, invigorates the present shoots, or bursts 
forth in the form of new shoots, and, in return- 


Part IV.] 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


259 


ing, contributes to the growth and nourishment 
of the roots. In such cases, trees are often 
killed by being left “to see where they break 
out.” They should be cut immediately: “ Bis 
dat qui citb dat.” This waste of the sap in the 
stem and branches, without the power to return 
to the root, is the reason why trees which are 
barked round just above the earth in general die. 
If young trees are cut down just above the 
earth, they shoot out again freely and continue to 
grow ; but if they are only barked, the sap going 
up the heart-wood diminishes the chance of an 
outbreak below, and without this outbreak the 
roots must die from a want of descending sap. 

If a branch is not cut at the foot of a living 
twig, its end should be again cut off at the foot 
of the new shoot, in order that the descending 
sap of the new shoot may deposit wood and 
bark over the cut end. If long stump-ends are 
allowed to remain, they rot before the new 
growth in diameter of their stock has inclosed 
and covered them. 

Near natural ponds, where the whole soil 
holds, the presence of trees is beneficial, from 
their prevention of evaporation, and from the 
condensation which takes place in moist warm 
weather, particularly on smooth-barked trees; 

s 2 


260 


PRUNING AND THINNING. 


[Part IV. 


but near artificial ponds or dams no growth 
whatever should be allowed : roots are the 
great creators of leaks. Nor should they be 
allowed on masonry. Koots, by turgescence, 
will rend apart the strongest masonry, or lift 
any weight of stone. In Greece, Italy, and 
throughout the East, roots are the great dilapi- 
dators of the ruins of antiquity. We may 
observe the effect of a too sudden exposure to 
the opposite force of drought in the warping 
and rending asunder of the strongest woody 
organisations. 


Part V.] 


THE PARK PINETUM. 


261 


PART V. 

THE PARK PINETUM. 

I should like to say a word in recommendation 
of park pinetums , as contrasted with flower-gar¬ 
den or lawn pinetums. 

As the generality of pinuses grow by nature 
into magnificent and gigantic forest-trees, they 
should, I think, be planted in our parks as well 
as in our flower-gardens, shrubberies, and lawns. 
Lawn plants, it is true, produce an instant beau¬ 
tiful effect as shrubs; and as they have their 
boughs down to the ground, more shelter, and 
better soil, they surpass the young park plants 
in beauty. So the green-house or hot-house 
plant surpasses the lawn plant in beauty. But 
in how short a time does the green-house or 
lawn plant become too big for its boots! and the 
lawn plant must be cut down or mutilated, be¬ 
cause it grows over this walk, or that flower¬ 
bed, or into this window or that door. Though 
exquisite when young, a few specimens will soon 
fill and overgrow the lawn pinetum. They have 


262 


THE PARK PINETUM. 


[Part V. 


been planted as shrubs; they are misplaced as 
trees : and the greater the growth, the more 
we have to regret the position of our most fa¬ 
vourite plants. 

By comparison with the pleasure-ground pi- 
netum, the park pinetum is infinite and eternal; 
that is, any number of plants may be grown, 
and the greater the number, and the greater 
their size, the greater the beauty and interest 
of the pinetum. 

But short-lived mortals claim the short-lived 
pleasure of the present hour; and a very little 
present pretty effect is greatly preferred to any 
quantity of infinity and eternity. And I do not 
mean to condemn lawn pinetums ; on the con¬ 
trary, I think them inappreciably beautiful. 
What I plead for is, that we should also plant 
posterity park pinetums. If we do not live to see 
their beauty ourselves, we shall not die the 
sooner for having created it for those who suc¬ 
ceed us on this earth. And must he be a liar 
who says he loves the neighbour whom he has 
not seen ? 

Pinuses should be planted out when from six 
inches to a foot high. I shall detail the method 
which I have followed, as my own labourer, in a 
small park pinetum since 1837. 


Tart V.] 


THE PARK PINETUM. 


263 


Dig a pit five feet in diameter, but go no 
deeper than the good upper soil; throw the 
earth out; add and mix as much good soil as 
you can afford. Having to wheel it myself, I 
used to think three barrows of road-sand from 
the nearest ditch a quantum, and half-a-dozen 
barrows a liberal allowance. In replacing the 
earth, put the turf at the bottom, and form a 
flat, low eminence brimming over the pit on to 
the undug ground outside, so that, when the 
loose earth in the pit sinks to its former level, a 
raised outside rim remains. This rim prevents 
inundation from without, and facilitates irriga¬ 
tion from within. It also prevents cracks, in 
drought, between the old and the new ground. 
These cracks the roots have a difficulty in cross¬ 
ing. They admit the drought, and harbour 
mice, which will sometimes make a thoroughfare 
entirely round the plant. If the pit is dug 
deeper than the upper soil, the roots are enticed 
and entrapped in a cup whose sides are imper¬ 
vious to them. 

The roots of the pot pinus should be carefully 
unwound; if not, they can never escape from 
the circular growth which the pot has given 
them, and the plant will die a self-strangled 
Laocoon. 


264 


THE PARK PINETUM. 


[Part V. 


From mice, the small enemies which I have 
mentioned below the soil, to the reach of a 
horse, seven feet above the soil, the pot park 
pinus has many enemies to contend with, in¬ 
cluding colts, cows, calves, sheep, lambs, hares, 
and rabbitsand it must be confessed that a 
park pinetum comes under the head of “ the 
acquisition of pinuses under difficulties.” 

The common horse-fence, seven feet high, be¬ 
sides being a great dis-sight, shuts your pet pot 
plant from your sight, perhaps, for a dozen 
years. Instead of this, I recommend an hex¬ 
agonal sheep-fence, four bars in height, round 
the pit, with a wire game-fence inside ; or, in¬ 
stead of these, a rabbit-proof circular wattle- 
fence : and, as an outside cattle-fence, eight iron 
hurdles, consisting only of an upper bar, four 
feet high, and an under bar, close to the ground. 
Between these bars the sheep will pass to graze, 
so that no pasture is wasted, and no mowing 
necessary. When the plant is large enough, 
the two inner fences may be taken away. The 
number of hurdles may be increased as the side- 
boughs increase ; and these side-boughs may for 
ever be let down to the sheep-browsing line, in¬ 
stead of being kept up to the horse-browsing 
line. More than this in the way of side-boughs 


Part V.] 


THE PARK PINETUM. 


265 


one must not attempt, or pretend to, in the park 
or pasture. As for boughs down to the ground, 
the very fence which protects them hides them, 
and is a still greater dis-sight than the absence 
of the boughs. The trees are planted as trees, 
and must not be looked at as shrubs. But they 
will be looked at as shrubs ; and after having 
been at great pains and expense merely for the 
preservation of side-boughs, and when you can 
show larger and lower side-boughs than can be 
seen in any other pasture, you will catch it from 
the vulgar for the destruction of side-boughs. 
But the vulgar are here as unreasonable as 
usual, and might as well require the park pas¬ 
ture to be laid out in flower-beds, or decked 
with green-house plants. 

On this system the pot pinus may be planted, 
when only an inch or two in height, in places 
exposed to cattle, and may be seen, pruned, cul¬ 
tivated, and petted , from first to last. 

In deer-parks the pot pinus may be protected 
by a wire game-fence and numerous circles of 
slight rails, of which the plant is the common 
centre, about a foot from the ground and from 
one another. These fend off cattle by entan¬ 
gling their legs. The objections to this fence are, 

T 


266 


THE PARK PINETUM. 


[Part V. 


sometimes a broken leg to cattle, and always 
sacrifice of pasture. 

The plants should be kept tied, by three 
strings, to the sheep-fence. When a large pinus 
requires steadying, or has been shaken by the 
wind, it should be made fast to the horse-rail, 
or iron hurdles, by three chains; the angles be¬ 
tween the chains being equal each to each. The 
chains should be fastened with S hooks round 
boughs, with lead between the chains and the 
boughs, in order to keep the stem intact. They 
should run up as high as convenient, like the 
rigging of a mast. This for two reasons : first, 
the higher the ties, the greater the mechanical 
advantage in holding against a strong wind; 
secondly, if the part which you attempt to fix 
has any motion, it will be felt at the root in¬ 
versely as the distance of the ties from the root. 
Cords get tight in wet, and loose in drought. 

An insignis raised in this way, planted in 
the autumn of 1837, is now (1853) above thirty- 
seven feet high. This is not much more than 
two feet each year ; but the three last shoots mea¬ 
sure together nine feet eight inches, and had the 
plant not been blown over when young, and its 
leader browsed by cattle, and afterwards broken 
by wind, I think its growth in height would 


Part V.] 


THE PARK PINETUM. 


267 


have averaged a yard a year. The soil is clay 
on chalk (very unfavourable for pinuses), with a 
few barrows of road-sand mixed at the first 
planting. 

For the park I recommend the Deodara cedar, 
the Araucaria imbricata, the Taxodium sem- 
pervirens, and the Cryptomeria Japonica. 

I have never met with any observations on 
the length of time which the grasses , or leaves of 
cone-bearing trees, remain alive. Perhaps two 
whole years at the least; in many cases, much 
longer: and I should doubt if the Araucaria 
and Cryptomeria have any fixed natural period 
for shedding their leaves. The generality of 
English evergreens defoliate as regularly as 
other trees called deciduous: but evergreens 
retain their leaves about a whole year; deci¬ 
duous trees, about half a year. 

I conclude by recommending the practice of concluding re- 

J ' marks. 

transplanting with the ball of earth, without re¬ 
ference to the theories with which it has been 
supported. Indeed, with regard to them, I do 
not believe that in all vegetable physiology or 
agricultural chemistry there is one principle to 
be depended on. In fact, the last science is a 
new light to us, for the first glimmerings of 


268 


THE PARK PINETUM. 


[Part V. 


which we are indebted to our immortal Davy. 
I say this with the deepest veneration for the 
brilliant talents and undaunted perseverance of 
those who have devoted themselves, or who still 
do devote themselves, to sciences of the first im¬ 
portance to the existence of man and the honour 
of his Creator; and with a heartfelt disgust at 
those who, pluming themselves on their progress 
in lower but more certain science, presume to 
taunt with their want of success philosophers 
who have attempted a labour, perhaps super¬ 
human,—to throw light on the-hitherto impene¬ 
trable darkness which has enveloped the pro¬ 
cesses of vitality — to delineate the actually 
progressing operations of the hand of the Al¬ 
mighty in his noblest, most finished, most com¬ 
plicated works. It is the unthinking only who, 
becoming inured to the universally perpetual 
recurrence of the generation and growth of 
organic existences, take these most mysterious 
miracles as matters of course, and behold them 
with indifference. 


THE END. 


London: 

Spottiswoodes and Shaw, 
New-street-Square. 


A CATALOGUE 

OF 

NEW WORKS AND NEW EDITIONS 

INI 

©oral anil ItMtams f iitrato, 

PUBLISHED BY 

LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS, 

39 , PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. 


CLASSIFIED INDEX. 


Agriculture and Rural 
A If airs. 

Pages. 

Bavldon On valuing Rents, &c. - 4 

Caird’s I.etters on Agriculture - fi 
Cecil’s Stud Farm 6 

Loudon's Agriculture - - - 17 

“ Self-Instruction - - 17 

“ Lady’s Country Compan. 17 
Low’s Elements of Agriculture - 18 


Arts, Manufactures, 
and Architecture. 


Addison’s Temple Church - - 3 

Bourne’s Catechism of the Steam 
Engine ----- 5 

“ on the Screw Propeller - 5 

Rrande’s Dictionary of Science,&c. 5 

Cresy’s Civil Engineering - - 7 

Eastlake On Oil Painting - - 8 

Gwilt’s Encyelop. of Architecture 10 
Jameson’s Sacred and LegendaryArt 13 
Loudon’s Rural Architecture - 17 
Moselev’s Engineering - - - 21 

Steam Engine,by the Artisan Club 3 
Tate on Strength of Materials - 29 
lire’s Dictionary of Arts, &c. - 30 


Biography. 


Baines’s Life of Baines - - ^ 

Bunsen’s Hippolvtus - - - ® 

Foss’s English Judges - - - 9 

Freeman’s Life of Kirby 9 

Haydon’s A utobiography,by Taylor 29 
Holeroft’s Memoirs - - - 31 

Holland’s (Lord) Memoirs - - 11 

Lardner’s Cabinet Cyclopaedia - 15 
Maunder’s Biographical Treasury- 19 
Memoir of the Duke of Wellington 31 
,, Lord Peterborough - 23 

Russell’s Memoirs of Moore - - 21 

Southey’s Life of Wesley - - 28 

“ Life and Correspondence 27 

Stephen’s Ecclesiastical Biography 29 
Taylor’s Loyola - - - - 29 

“ Wesley - - - - 29 

Townsend’s Eminent Judges - 30 

Waterton’s Autobiography & Essays 30 


Eccks of General 
Utility. 

Acton’s Cookery 3 

Black’s Treatise on Brewing - - 4 

Cabinet Gazetteer - - - - 6 

“ Lawyer - - - - 6 

Hints on Etiquette - - - 11 

Hudson’sExecutor’s Guide - - 12 

“ On Making Wills - - 12 

Lardner’s Cabinet Cyclopsedia - 15 
Loudon’s Self-Instruction - - 17 

“ Lady’s Companion - 17 

“ Amateur Gardener - 16 

Maunder’s Treasury of Knowledge 20 

“ Biographical Treasury 19 

“ Scientific Treasury - 20 

“ Treasury of History - 19 

“ Natural History - - 20 

Pocket and the Stud - - - 11 

Pycroft’s English Reading - - 24 

Reece’s Medical Guide - - - 24 

Rich’s Comp, to Latin Dictionary 24 
Riddle’s Latin Dictionaries - - 24 

Rogers’s Vegetable Cultivator - 25 

Roget’s English Thesaurus - - 25 




Pages. 

Rowton’s Debater - 

_ 

- 25 

Short Whist - 


- 26 

Thomson’s Interest Tables 


- 30 

Traveller’s Library 

_ 

- 31 

Webster’s Domestic Economy 

- 32 

vv ilmot’s Abridgment of 

Black- 

stone’s Commentaries 

- 

- 33 


Botany and Gardening. 

Conversations on Botany • - 6 

Hooker’s British Flora - - - 12 

“ Guide to Kew Gardens - 11 
Lindley’s Introduction to Botany 16 
Loudon’s Hortus Britannicus - 17 

“ Amateur Gardener - 16 

“ Self-Instruction - - 17 

•* Trees and Shrubs - * 17 

“ Gardening - - - 17 

“ Plants - - - 17 

Rivers’s Rose Amateur’s Guide - 24 
Rogers’s Vegetable Cultivator - 25 


Chronology. 

Blair’s Chronological Tables - 4 

Bunsen’s Ancient Egypt - - 6 

Haydn’s Beatson’s Index - * 11 

Nicolas’s Chronology of History - 15 

Commerce and Mercan¬ 
tile Affairs. 

Francis’s Bank of England - * 9 

“ English Railway - - 9 

“ Stock Exchange - - 9 

Lorimer’s Letters to a Young 
Master Mariner - 16 

M‘Culloch’sCommerce& Navigation 18 
Steel's Shipmaster’s Assistant - 28 

Symons’ Merchant Seamen’s Law 28 

Thomson’s Interest Tables - - 30 

Criticism, History, and 
Memoirs. 

Addison’s Knights Templars - 3 

Anthony’s Footsteps to History - 3 

Balfour’s Sketches of Literature - 4 

Belfast’s English Poets 4 

Blair’s Chron. and Histor. Tables - 4 

Bunsen’s Ancient Egypt 5 

“ Hippolytus’ 6 

Burton’s History of Scotland - 5 

Conybeare and Howson’s St. Paul 7 
Dennistoun’s Dukes of CHiir.o - « 

Eastlake’s History of Oil Painting fi 
Felice’s French Protestants - - 9 

Foss's English Judges 9 

Francis’s Bank of England - - 9 

“ English Railway - - 9 

“ Stock Exchange - - 9 

Gleig’s Leipsic Campaign - - 31 

Gurney’s Historical Sketches - 10 
Hamilton’s Essays from the Edin¬ 
burgh Review - - - - 10 

Haydon’s Autobiography,byTaylor 29 
Holland’s (Lord) Foreign Remi¬ 
niscences - - - - 11 

“ Whig Party - 11 

Jeffrey’s (Lord) Contributions - J3 
Kemble’s Anglo-Saxons . 14 

Lardner’s Cabinet Cyclopaedia - 15 
Macaulay’s Crit. and Hist. Essays 18 
“ History of England - 18 
Mackintosh’s Miscellaneous Works 18 


Pages. 

M'CulIoch’sGeographicalDictionary 18 
Mariotti’s Fra Dolcino - - - 19 

Martineau’s Church History - - 19 

Maunder’s Treasury of History - 19 
Memoir of the Duke of Wellington St 
Merivale’s History of Rome - - 20 

“ Roman Republic - 20 

Milner’s Church History - - 20 

Moore’s (Thomas) Memoirs,&c - 21 
Mosheim’s Ecclesiastical History 21 
Mure’s Greek Literature - • 22 

Ranke’s Ferdinand & Maximilian 31 
Rich’s Comp, to Latin Dictionary 24 
Riddle’s Latin Dictionaries - - 24 

Rogers's EssaysfromtheEdin burgh 
Review - - - - - 25 

Roget’s English Thesaurus - - 25 

St. John’s Indian Archipelago - 25 
Schmitz’s History of Greece - * 29 

Sinclair’s Popish Legends - - 26 

Smith’s St. Paul - - - - 27 

Southey’s The Doctor &c. - - 27 

Stephen’s Ecclesiastical Biographv 29 
“ Lectures on the History 

of France - - - 28 

Sydney Smith’s Works - - 27 

“ Lectures on Moral 

Philosophy - - - - 27 

Taylor’s Loyola - - - 29 

“ AVesley .... 29 

Thirlwall’s History of Greece - 29 
Townsend’s State Trials - - 30 

Turner’s Anglo Saxons - - 30 

“ England during the Mid¬ 
dle Ages - 30 

“ Sacred Hist, of the World 30 

Zumpt’s Latin Grammar - - 32 

Geography and 
Atlases. 

Butler’s Geography and Atlases - 6 

Cabinet Gazetteer 6 

Hall’s Large Library Atlas - - 10 

Hughes’s (E.) New School Physical 
Atlas ------ 12 

“ (W.) Mathematical Geog. 13 

“ Australian Colonies 31 

Johnston’s General Gazetteer - 14 
M'Culloch’s Geographical Dictionary 18 
M'Leoda^d Weller’s Script. Atlas 19 
Murray’s Encyelop. of Geography - 22 
Sharp’s British Gazetteer - - 26 

Juvenile Books. 

Amy Herbert - - - -25 

Anthony’s Footsteps to History - 3 

Calling, &c. of a Governess - - 6 

Corner’s Children’s Sunday Book c 
Earl’s Daughter (The) - - - 25 

Experience of Life 8 

Gertrude - - - - 25 

Graham’s Studies from the English 
Poets - - s . 9 

Howitt’s Boy’s Country Bool; 12 
“ (Mary) Children’s Year - 12 
J.aneton Parsonage - - - 26 

Mrs. Marcet’s Conversations - - 19 

M argaret Percival - - - - 26 

Pycroft’s English Reading - - 24 


Medicine. 

Ancell on Tuberculosis - - - 3 

Bull’8 Hints to Mothers - - . 5 

“ Managementof Children - 5 

Copland’s Dictionary of Medicine - 7 

Holland’s Mental Physiology - 11 


























CLASSIFIED INDEX— continued, 


Pages. 


Latham On Diseases of the Heart - 16 
Moore On Health, Disease,&Remedy 20 
Pereira On Food and Diet - - 23 
Reece’s Medical Guide - - - 24 
Thomas’s Practice of Physic - 29 


Miscellaneous and Ge¬ 
neral Literature. 


Calling, &c. of a Governess - - 6 

Carlisle’s Lectures and Addresses 31 

Eclipse of Faith 8 

Graham’s English - - - 10 

Greg’s Essays on Political and 
Social Science - - - - 10 

Haydn’s Book of Dignities - - 11 

Holland’s Mental Physiology - 11 
Hooker’s Kew Guide - - - 11 

Howitt’s Rural Life of England - 12 
“ Visitsto RemarkablePlaces 12 
Jeffrey’s (Lord) Contributions - 13 
Lang on Freedom for the Colonies 14 
Lardner’s Cabinet Cyclopedia - 15 
Loudon’s Lady’s Country Comp. - 17 
Macaulay’s Crit. and Hist. Essats 18 
Mackintosh’s Miscellaneous Works 18 
Memoirs of a Maitre d’Armes - 31 
Maitland’s Church in the Catacombs 19 
Pascal’s Works, by Pearce - - 22 

Pycroft’s English Reading - - 24 

Rich’s Comp, to Latin Dictionary 24 
Riddle’s Latin Dictionaries - - 24 

Rowton’s Debater - - 25 

Seaward’s Narrative of his Shipwreck25 
Sir'‘Roger de Coverley - - - 26 

Sketches by a Sailor - - - 26 

Smith’s (Rev. Sydney) Works - 27 
Southey’s Common-place Books - 27 
“ The Doctor &c. - - 27 

Stephen’s Essays - 28 

Stow’s Training System - - 28 

Townsend’s State Trials - - 30 

Zumpt’8 Latin Grammar - - 32 


Natural History in 
General. 

Catlow’s Popular Conchology - 6 

Doubleday, Westwood, & Hewit- 
son’s Butterflies 8 

Ephemera and Young On the Salmon 8 
Gosse’s Nat. Hist, of Jamaica - 9 

Kemp’s Natural Hist, of Creation 31 
Kirby and Spence’s Entomology - 14 
Lee’s Elements of Natural History 16 
Maunder’s Natural History - - 20 

Turton’s Shells oftheBritishlslands 30 
Waterton’sEssayson Natural Hist. 30 
Youatt’s The Dog ... 32 

“ The Horse - - - 32 

One-Volume 
Encyclopaedias and 
Dictionaries. 


Blaine’s Rural Sports 4 

Brande’s Science,Literature, & Art 5 
Copland’s Dictionary of Medicine - 7 

Cresy’s Civil Engineering - 5 

Gwilt’s Architecture - - 10 

Johnston’s Geographical Dictionary 14 
Loudon’s Agriculture - - 17 

“ Rural Architecture - 17 

“ G irdening - - - 17 

“ Plants - ... 17 

“ Trees and Shi ubs - - 17 

M'Culloch’s Geographical Dictionary 18 
“ Dictionary of Commerce 18 
Murray’s Encyclop. of Geography - 22 
Sharp’s British Gazetteer - - 26 

Ure’s Dictionary of Arts, &c. - - 32 

Webster’s Domestic Economy - 30 


Religious and Moral 
Works. 


Amy Herbert - - - - 25 

Bloomfield’s Greek Testament - 4 

“ Annotations on do- 4 

“ College and School do. 4 
Calling and Responsibilities of a 
Governess - - 6 

Conybeare and Howson’s St.'Paul 7 

Corner’s Sunday Book - - . 6 

Dale’s Domestic Liturgy 7 

Discipline ----- 8 

Earl’s Daughter (The) - - - 26 

Eclipse of Faith - - - 8 

Englishman’s Greek Concordance 8 
Engl ishman’sHeb. &Chald .Concord. 8 

Experience of Life (The) - 8 

Felice’s French Protestants - - 9 


Pages. 

Gertrude ----- 25 
Harrison’s Lights of the Forge - 10 
Hook’s Lectures on Passion Week 11 
Horne’s Introduction to Scriptures 12 

“ Abridgment of ditto - 12 

Jameson’s Sacred Legends - - 13 

“ Monastic Legends - - 13 

** Legends of the Madonna 13 
Jeremy Taylor’s Works - - - 14 

Kippis’s Hymns - - - - 14 

Laneton Parsonage - - - 26 

Letters to My Unknown Friends - 16 
“ on Happiness - - - 16 

Litton’s Church of Christ - - 16 

M‘Leod& Weller’s Scripture Atlas 18 
Maitland’s Church in the Catacombs 19 

■ 26 
19 

19 

20 
20 
20 
20 
20 
21 
22 
22 

22 
22 
22 
31 
14 

25 
25 

25 

26 
26 
26 


Margaret Percival - 
Manotti’s Fra Dolcino - 
Martineau’s Church History- 
Milner’s Church of Christ 
Montgomery’s Original Hymns 
Moore On the Use of the Body 
" “ Soul and Body 

“ ’s Man and his Motives 
Mosheim’s Ecclesiastical History- 
Neale’s Closing Scene - 

“ Resting Places of the Just 
“ Riches that Bring no 

Sorrow - - - - - 

“ Risen from the Ranks 
Newman’s (J. H.) Discourses 
Ranke’s Ferdinand & Maximilian 
Readings for Lent - - - 

Robinson's Lexicon to the Greek 

Testament - - - - - 

Saints our Example - - - 

Self-Denial ----- 
Sinclair’s Journey of Life *■ 

“ Popish Legends - 
Sketches by a Sailor - - - 

Smith’s (Sydney) Moral Philosophy 27 

27 

28 
28 
29 
29 
29 

29 

30 


(J.) St. Paul 
Southey’s Life of Wesley 
Stephen’s Ecclesiastical Biography 
Tayler’s Lady Mary - - - 

“ Margaret; or, the Pearl - 
Taylor’s Loyola - - - - 

“ Wesley - - - - 

Thumb Bible (The) - - - 

Tomline’s Introduction to the Bible 30 
Turner’s Sacred History - - - 30 


Poetry and the Drama. 

Aikin’s (Dr.) British Poets - - 3 

Baillie’s (Joanna) Poetical Works 3 
Belfast’s Lectures on the English 
Poets - .... 4 

Dante, by Cayley 6 

Flowers and their kindred Thoughts 22 
Fruits from Garden and Field - 22 
Goethe’s Faust, by Falck Lebahn 16 
Goldsmith’s Poems, illustrated - 9 

Kippis’s Hymns - - - - 14 

L. E. L.’s Poetical Works - - 16 

Linwood’s Anthologia Oxoniensis- 16 
Macaulay’s Lays of Ancient Rome 18 
Montgomery’s Poetical Works - 20 
“ Original Hymns - 20 

Moore’s Poetical Works - - 21 

“ Lalla Rookh - - - 21 

“ Irish Melodies - - - 21 

“ Songs and Ballads - - 21 

Shakspeare, by Bowdler - - 26 

“ Sentiments & Similes 13 

“ Songs and Ballads - 26 

Southey’s Poetical Works - - 27 

“ British Poets - - - 28 

Swain’s English Melodies - - 29 

Thomson’s Seasons, illustrated - 27 
Watts’s Lyrics of the Heart - - 32 

Winged Thoughts - - - 22 

Political Economy and 
Statistics. 


Banfield’s Statistical Companion - 4 

Caird’s Letters on Agriculture - 6 

Francis’s Bank of England 9 

" English Railway - - 9 

" Stock Exchange - - 9 

Greg’s Essays on Political and 
Social Science - - - - 10 

Laing’s Notes of a Traveller - - 14 

“ Notes on Denmark and 
the Duchies - - - 14 

M'Culloch’s Geog. Statist. &c. Diet. 18 
Dictionary of Commerce 18 
“ London - - - 31 

Statistics of Gt. Britain 19 
“ On Funding & Taxation 19 
" On W ages - - - 18 

Marcet’s Political Economy - - 19 

Pashley On Pauperism - - - 23 


The Sciences 
in General and Mathe¬ 
matics. 

Pages. 

Bourne’s Catechism of the Steam 
Engine ----- 5 

“ on the Screw Propeller - 5 

Brande’s Dictionary of Science, &c. 5 

Cresy’s Civil Engineering - - 7 

De laBeche’sGeology of Corn wall,&c. 7 
“ Geological Observer - 7 

De la Rive’s Electricity - - 7 

Herschel’s Outlines of Astronomy 11 
Holland’s Mental Physiology - 11 
Humboldt’s Aspects of Nature - 13 

“ Cosmos - - - 13 

Lardner’s Cabinet Cyclopaedia - 15 
“ Great Exhibition - - 16 

Lund’s Companion to Wood’s 
Algebra - - - 32 

Marcet’s (Mrs.) Conversations - 19 
Moseley’s Practical Mechanics - 21 
“ Engineering&Architecture 21 
Owen's Lectures on Comp. Anatomy 22 
Peschel’s Elements of Physics - 23 
Phillips’s Fossils of Cornwall, &c. 23 
“ Mineralogy - - 23 

Portlock’s Geology of Londonderry 24 
Smee’s Electro Metallurgy - - 27 

Steam Engine (The) 3 

Tate On Strength of Materials - 29 
“ Exercises on Mechanics - 28 
“ Mechanical Philosophy - 29 
Wilson’s Electricity and the Elec¬ 
tric Telegraph • - - - 31 

Wood’s Algebra, by Lund - - 32 


Rural Sports. 


Blaine’s Dictionary of Sports - 4 

Cecil’s Stable Practice - - - 6 

“ Stud Farm - - - - 6 

The Cricket Field - - - - 7 

Ephemera on Angling - - - 8 

“ Book of the Salmon - 8 

Hawker’s Instructions to Sportsmen 11 
The Hunting-Field - - - 10 

Loudon’s Lady’s Country Comp. - 15 

Pocket and the Stud - - - 11 

Practical Horsemanship - - 10 

Pulman’s Fly Fishing - - - 24 

Stable Talk and Table Talk - - 11 

The Stud, for practical purposes - 10 
Wheatley’s Rod and Line - - 82 


VeterinaryMedicine,&c. 


Cecil’s Stable Practice 
“ Stud Farm 
Hunting Field (The) - 
Pocket and the Stud 
Practical Horsemanship 
Stable Talk and Table Talk - 
Stud (The) - 

Youatt’s The Dog - - - 

“ The Horse 


6 

6 

10 

11 

10 

11 

10 

32 

32 


Voyages and 
Travels. 


Adams’s Canterbury Settlement - 3 

Davis’s China 7 

Eothen ------ 31 

Forbes’s Dahomey ... 9 

Forester and Biddulph’s Norway - 9 

Hope’s Brittany and the Bible - 31 
Hue’s Tartary, Thibet, and China 31 
Hughes’s Australian Colonies - 31 

Humboldt’s Aspects of Nature - 13 

Jameson’s Canada - - - - 31 

Jerrmaun’s Pictures from St. 

Petersburg - - - - 31 

Lang’s New South Wales - - 14 

Laing’s Norway - - - - 31 

“ Denmark and the Duchies 14 
" Notes of a Traveller - 14 
Lardner’s London - - 16 

Osborn’s Arctic Journal - - 22 

Peel’s Nubian Desert - - - 23 

Pfeiffer’s Voyage round the World 31 
Power’s New Zealand Sketches - 24 
Richardson’s Arctic Boat Voyage 24 
Seaward’s Narrative - - ' - 25 

Snow’s Arctic Voyage - - - 27 

St. John’s (H.) Indian Archipelago 25 
“ (J. A.) Isis - - - 25 

Sutherland’s Arctic Voyage - - 28 

Traveller’s Library - - - 31 

Werne's African Wanderings - 31 


Works of Fiction. 

Lady Willoughby’s Diary - - 32 

Macdonald’s Villa Verocchio . 18 

Sir Roger de Coverley - - - 26 

Southey’s The Doctor &c. - - 27 




















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8 


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DENNISTOUN-MEMOIRS OE THE DUKES OF URBINQ ; 

Illustrating the Arms, Arts, and Literature of Italy, from MCCCCXL. to MDCXXX. By 
James Dennistoun, of Dennistoun. With numerous Portraits, Plates, Fac-similes, and 
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DISCIPLINE. 

By the Author of Letters to my Unknown Friends , &c. Second Edition, enlarged. 18mo. 
price Half-a-Crown, cloth. 

DOUBLEDAY, WESTWOOD, AND HEWITSON. — THE 

GENERA of BUTTERFLIES, or DIURNAL LEPIDOPTERA: comprising their Generic 
Characters, a Notice of their Habits and Transformations, and a Catalogue of the Species of 
each Genus. By Edward Doubleday, F.L.S , F.Z.S., late Assistant in the Zoological 
Department of the British Museum; and John O. Westwood, Esq., President of the 
Entomological Society of London. Illustrated with Eighty-six coloured Plates from Drawings 
by W. C. Hewitson, Esq., Author of British Oology. 2 vols. imperial 4 to. price Fifteen 
Guineas, half-bound in morocco. 

EASTLAKE-MATERIALS FOR A HISTORY OF OIL 

PAINTING. By Sir Charles Lock Eastlake, F.R.S. F.S.A., President of the Royal 
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THE ECLIPSE OF FAITH; 

Or, a Visit to a Religious Sceptic. New Edition. Post 8vo. price 9s. fid. cloth. 

“ It is absolutely necessary to meet them" [infidel writers of the modprn school’, “ on their own ground, and fiiht them 
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yet it is not open to the apparent objection ot grave and serious subjects being treated fl ppantly. Whilst, from the 
nature of the subject, it might fan ly tie entnled ‘Theological Fragments,’ Irom the method in which the subject is 
treated it is as interesting as a collection of scenes of society." Britannia.. 

THE ENGLISHMAN’S GREEK CONCORDANCE OF THE 

NEW TESTAMENT: being an Attempt at a Verbal Connexion between the Greek and the 
English Texts; including a Concordance to the Proper Names, with Indexes, Greek-English 
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THE ENGLISHMAN’S HEBREW AND CHALDEE Con¬ 
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EPHEMERA—THE BOOK OF TEE SALMON: 

Comprising the Theory, Principles, and Practice of Fly-Fishing for Salmon : with Lists of 
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Salmon, all Its known Habits described, and the best way of artificially Breeding It ex¬ 
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land’s Salmon Fisheries. Fcp. 8vo. with coloured Plates, 14s. cloth. 

1 

EPHEMERA.—A HAND-BOOK OF ANGLING; 

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I 

THE EXPERIENCE OF LIFE. 

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FELICE’S HISTORY OF THE PROTESTANTS OF FRANCE, 

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FORBES.—DAHOMEY AND THE DAHOMANS: 

Being the Journals of Two Missions to the King of Dahomey, and Residence at his Capital, 
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FORESTER AND BIDDULPH’S NORWAY. 

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FOSS.—THE JUDGES OF ENGLAND: I 

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FRANCIS.—THE HISTORY OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND; 

7 | 

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FRAN CIS.—CHRONICLES AND CHARACTERS OF THE 

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FREEMAN.—THE LIFE OF THE REV. WILLIAM KIRBY, 

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GOLDSMITH. - THE POETICAL WORKS OF OLIVER j 

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GRAHAM— STUDIES FROM THE ENGLISH POETS: 

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10 


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MB,. W. B. GBEG’S CONTBIBUTIONS TO THE EDIN¬ 
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GURNEY.—HISTORICAL SKETCHES; 

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GWILT.—AN ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF ABCHITECTUBE, 

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SIDNEY HALL’S GENERAL LARGE LIBRARY ATLAS 

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HARRISON.-THE LIGHT OF THE FORGE; 

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HARRY HIEOVER.—THE STUD, 

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HARRY HIEOVER.— THE POCKET AND THE STUD; 

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HAWKER-INSTRUCTIONS TO YOUNG SPORTSMEN 

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SIR JOHN HERSCHEL.—OUTLINES OF ASTRONOMY. 

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HOLLAND.-CHAPTERS ON MENTAL PHYSIOLOGY. 

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HOOK.—THE LAST DAYS OF OUR LORD’S MINISTRY: 

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HOOKER—KEW GARDENS; 

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12 


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HOOKER AND ARNOTT.—THE BRITISH FLORA; 

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HORNE.—AN INTRODUCTION TO THE CRITICAL STUDY 

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HORNE.—A COMPENDIOUS INTRODUCTION TO THE 

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WILLIAM HOWITT’S BOY’S COUNTRY BOOK: 

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HOWITT.—THE RURAL LIFE OF ENGLAND. 

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HOWITT—VISITS TO REMARKABLE PLACES; 

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HUDSON— PLAIN DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING WILLS 

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HUGHES (E.)-A NEW SCHOOL ATLAS OF PHYSICAL, 

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13 


HUGHES (W.)—A MANUAL OF MATHEMATICAL GEO- 

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HUMBOLDT. -ASPECTS OF NATURE 

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HUMPHREYS—SENTIMENTS AND SIMILES OF SHAK- 

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MRS. JAMESON’S LEGENDS OF THE MONASTIC 

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14 NEW WORKS AND NEW EDITIONS 


BISHOP JEREMY TAYLOR’S ENTIRE WORKS: 

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BISHOP JEREMY TAYLOR—READINGS FOR EVERY 

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JOHNSTON—A NEW DICTIONARY OF GEOGRAPHY, 

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KEMBLE—THE SAXONS IN ENGLAND: 

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KIPPIS.-A COLLECTION OF HYMNS AND PSALMS FOR 

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LAING.—OBSERVATIONS ON THE SOCIAL AND P0LI- 

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LANG. — FREEDOM AND INDEPENDENCE FOR THE 

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LARDNER’S CABINET CYCLOPAEDIA 


OF HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, LITERATURE, THE ARTS AND SCIENCES, NATURAL 
HISTORY, AND MANUFACTURES: A Series of Original Works by 


Sir John Herschel, 
Sir James Mackintosh 
Robert Southey, 

Sir David Brewster, 


Thomas Keightley, 
John Forster, 

Sir Walter Scott, 
Thomas Moore, 

And other eminent Writers. 


Bishop Thirlwall, 

Ihe Rev. G. R. Gleig, 

J. C. L. De Sismondi, 
John Phillips, F.R.S. G.S 


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2. Bell’s Lives of British Poets.. 2 vols. 7s. 

3. Brewster’s Optics. 1 vol. 3s. 6d. 

4. Cooley’s Maritime and Inland 

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5. Crowe’s History of France ..3 vols. 10s. 6d. 

6. De Morgan on Probabilities .. 1 vol. 3s. 6d. 

7. De Sismondi’s History of the 

Italian Republics.1 vol. 3s. 6d. 

8. De Sismondi’s Fall of theRoman 

Empire.2 vols. 7s. 

9. Donovan’s Chemistry.1 vol. 3s. 6d. 

10. Donovan’sDomestic Economy 2 vols. 7s. 

11. Dunham’s Spain & Portugal 5 vols. 17s. 6d. 

12. Dunhain’sHistory of Denmark, 

Sweden, and Norway.3 vols. 10s. 6d. 

13. Dunham’s History of Poland.. 1 vol. 3s. 6d. 

14. Dunham’s Germanic Empire 3 vols. 10s. 6d. 

15. Dunham’s Europe during the 

Middle Ages.4 vols. 14s. 

16. Dunham’s British Dramatists 2 vols. 7s. 

17. Dunham’s Lives of Early Wri¬ 

ters of Great Britain.1 vol. . Sd. 

18. Fergus’s History of the United 

States ..2 vols. 7s. 

19. Fosbroke’s Greek and Roman 

Antiquities.2 vols. 7s. 

20. Forster’s Lives of the States¬ 

men of the Commonwealth 5 vols. 17s. 6d. 

21. Gleig’s Lives of British Mili¬ 

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23. Grattan’s History of the Ne¬ 
therlands .1 vol. 3s. 6d. 

23. Henslow’s Botany .1 vol. 3s. 6d. 

24. Herschel’s Astronomy .1 vol. 3s. 6d. 

25., Herschel’s Discourse on Na¬ 
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26. History of Rome.2 vols. 7s. 

27. History of Switzerland.1 vol. 3s. 6d. 

28. Holland’s Manufactures in 

Metal .3 vols. 10s. 6d. 

29. James’sLives ofForeignStates- 

men .5 vols. 17s. 6d. 

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28 


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30 NEW WORKS AND NEW EDITIONS 


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